Fillies and Colts
by sakurademonalchemist
Summary: Dino had always known there was more to the story of why his mother never returned from England. He just wasn't expecting there to be a conspiracy involving his mother's stalker and a half-sister that came because of it. He's not leaving Melody in England though, not by a long shot. Now if only she didn't attract the weirdest people to her as her Guardians and best friends.
1. Chapter 1

There was an unspoken rule among the Chaivarone famiglia, and that was to never, ever speak of the young master's mother Lily within his hearing. Everyone loved Dino, and having people remind him of his mother upset him greatly.

Reborn, being the chaotic troll that he was, ferreted out the general story of what happened to Dino's civilian mother within a week and quietly agreed never to bring it up.

Dino's mother had gotten a letter from a trusted school friend in England during the mess that had been going on, and had gone in to help. Only for the fools to decide that since she was a half-way decent fighter and not a pure blood, that they were free to keep her there for as long as necessary, giving her all sorts of excuses and lies to keep her from returning to her very unhappy son.

Dino was unusually in tune with his mother, so when he started bawling one day and refused to quiet down for days, they knew something terrible had happened to the woman.

So when Dino found a note among his paperwork with a name he actually recognized from his mother's few diaries that she left behind, well he decided that now was a perfect time to find out what the hell actually happened to her. After all, Reborn would never let those damn English magicals trap him like they had his poor mother. It wouldn't do for a future mafia boss to be captured by those idiots, after all.

 _In England..._

"Explain to me again why we are going to England to deal with this personally, Stupid-Dino," said Reborn darkly.

"The name on report I got last week was one I recognized. The man in question married my mother's sister and I was hoping she would have some answers as to what happened to her...even if my mother admitted they had lost touch because of that school," said Dino.

Reborn glared at him and Dino shivered. His tutor was going to be extra hellish for dragging him all the way to England over a minor financial discrepancy.

The first thing that Dino thought when he saw his maternal aunt was that he was heartily glad he took more after his father than his mother's family, save for the eyes. He had his mother's eyes.

A fact she took immediate note of.

There was something seriously wrong with this house and Dino was determined to get to the bottom of it come hell or high water. Every instinct in him demanded that he not let a single clue go unchecked and that this trip would have some major surprises for all involved.

A fact that became very apparent when, during the rather tense 'dinner' Dino caught sight of a smaller child trying to duck out of sight. His instincts screamed at him to investigate...he had only been told of the rather oafish son.

Reborn couldn't exactly blame his student for not mentioning their relation to the woman. It was likely she would have tried to use their blood connection to protect her husband or get something out of him. She might suspect something though if the looks she kept giving him were any indication.

"So who is the kid I saw earlier?"

"You mean my son?" asked Vernon nervously. Dino narrowed his eyes at him.

"Unless your son suddenly has red hair and looks several stones lighter before returning to blond and overweight, no," said Dino.

Vernon's eyes belayed something was definitely off as Petunia tried to change the subject, rather unsuccessfully at that.

Dino, however, was tired of playing.

"I will admit, there was a specific reason I came here in person rather than delegate this duty to a subordinate," he said flatly.

Reborn used the distraction to try and find the other child Dino had seen earlier. It didn't take long...it wasn't that big a house after all and he was less than pleased finding the small child in the boot cupboard with a very startled look. The fact that it looked like it had been converted a rather pathetic bedroom did not bode well for the adults in the house.

Dino took one look at the child's eyes (so similar to his own green) before he narrowed his own at Petunia in disgust.

"Who is this, and don't lie to me."

Realizing they had been caught, Petunia didn't try to lie her way out of it.

"My worthless sister's brat. She was dumped on us without asking and we've been stuck with her ever since. We've tried to raise her as a proper girl, but she's slow and clumsy," said Petunia. Her glare did not speak well of what would happen to her niece once they left.

"Oh really?" said Dino, his aura changing entirely. "And what exactly happened to this sister of yours?"

"The stupid fool went and got blown up after marrying that arrogant drunk Potter," spat Petunia.

"I find that interesting, considering my mother was still very much married to my father when her friend called her back to England. Especially considering I know for a fact she only used Potter as a cover," said Dino darkly. "Care to explain who left my _sister_ here with you?"

"Sister?" repeated Petunia dumbly.

"Perhaps I should have properly introduced myself. My name is Dino Chaivarone and my _mother_ was Lily Evans. The only reason I came here in person was because she mentioned her older sister marrying a man by the name of Vernon Dursley in her diaries and I wanted to know exactly what happened to her," said Dino darkly. He was _pissed_.

Reborn was coaxing the little one out of the cupboard. There was a distinct spark of hope in her eyes that had been missing when he found her in there.

"Are you telling me that you're my nephew? Preposterous, Lily never had any other children!" said Petunia.

"Yes, well she did have a lot of help hiding the fact she was pregnant while still in school after a rather drunken night in Italy," said Dino evenly. He shared a look with Reborn. "Perhaps we should discuss a few things in private, away from small ears."

Reborn could safely say that he was very proud of his student right now. Dino was being a good mafia boss and he knew that his foolish student wouldn't _dare_ leave this girl here. Not when he was publicly claiming her as his sister.

Well, half-sister if Reborn was doing the mental math right. She looked to be about the right age for the time period when Dino's mother was more or less tricked into staying in the country.

Dino came out looking darkly pleased with himself, though it brightened when he saw the girl.

"Do you have anything you want to keep?" he asked gently.

She shook her head. She had learned a long time ago that having attachments to anything just made it hurt far worse when they were taken away for her freakishness.

So it was only natural she let out a light "Eep!" in surprise when the blond with familiar green eyes gently picked her up and let her wrap her arms around his neck. He frowned at how light she was.

"Who's this boss?" asked Romario.

"We're going to need to make a side trip in London, just to close up the loose ends," said Dino.

"...Civilian or Other?" asked Romario. He was one of the few who were aware that Dino was a wizard and was only a few exams away from being considered an 'competent adult' in the eyes of the enclaves.

"Other," said Dino.

Romario sighed, to Reborn's quiet surprise.

"I was afraid of that. And here I was hoping we'd avoid them entirely."

Reborn would have started demanding answers, except he was more worried about the girl. Dino had carried her far too easily, and from the frown on his face when he did it was entirely possible she was suffering from neglect on top of the obvious abuse.

The poor thing was far too skinny, wearing clothes that weren't fit for scraps, and was looking entirely like she expected this to be all one very big and cruel joke before her life went straight to hell in a hurry.

* * *

Dino looked at the results in his hand. He was thanking god that the goblin blood tests were far quicker and more accurate than the normal ones. That and they provided a complete ancestry if you paid them.

On one hand, he now had a half-sister that he would be taking home with him. On the other he was heartily cursing the name James Potter, because he was well aware of that bastard's obsession with his mother and this was clear evidence he had taken advantage of her.

He wouldn't take it out on Melody, but if he ever found anyone who helped James ensnare his mother he was going to demonstrate exactly why you don't piss off a student of Reborn.

The next thing he did was file for full custody of his sister... because he was almost sixteen, had passed the equivalent of the Ordinary Wizarding Levels in his home country with high marks, and was the closest blood relative of his younger sibling with magical blood, it only took a few hours for the forms to be filed and made legal. Considering he had been hearing things of "Melody Potter", it was a good thing the goblins were willing to accept the papers for "Melody Evans".

Then again, according to them the "marriage" of Lily Evans to James Potter had never gone through to begin with because she had already been married to a recognized "magical" line and had never taken off her wedding ring. Potter might have filed for it, but he had been too arrogant or stupid to make sure it had gone through when he made everyone believe he had finally gotten the girl he had been after for _years_.

A visit to his mother's vaults cleared up several matters, like why she even agreed to it when she was already married.

Dino's anger towards Potter only went up after reading the part about how she had an 'accident' in the middle of a battle that left her with amnesia. Though she also mentioned how suspicious Remus was of the entire wedding and how he had discreetly asked several very odd questions before quickly dropping it when James started asking questions of his own.

Considering "Remus Lupin" was mentioned in the journals as one of the people who helped to hide the pregnancy, Dino finally had a proper idea of who to ask the hard questions about what happened to his mother. Now to get an owl...

Melody was still having great difficulty believing how quickly her life had changed around. She had always dreamed of a relative showing up and taking her away from the Dursleys...she never thought it would actually _happen_.

Who would have known she had an older brother, one her mum kept secret from almost everyone?

Dino was clumsy, but he was really sweet and gentle. Even if his home tutor was really weird. Reborn was a little scary, but was actually a softie underneath his dark exterior.

She felt the bed under her move a bit, and snuggled deeper into her brother's side. She had trouble sleeping at night because the bed was so soft and she kept thinking she was dreaming when she woke up. That she would wake up and be back in her cupboard. Dino didn't mind if she used him as a giant teddy bear.

* * *

 _Dino POV_

"How is she holding up?" he asked Reborn.

"Children react one of two ways after this sort of thing. They either become submissive and eventually grow up to be victims, or they learn to adapt and come out of it with a strong will to live. Your sister is the latter," said Reborn flatly. "Once we return to Italy the adjustment will come a bit easier... right now she's still in shock you took her away from that house and is expecting to wake up and find herself right back."

"Not happening. Vernon's ruined and Petunia is going to be driven off the deep end even if I have to pay a Mist to do it professionally," said Dino darkly.

Reborn felt so proud of his student at that moment.

"No need for that. I've already called Shamal in to give her a full check up and an idea of what she'll need to make a full recovery. I'm sure he'd be happy to help once he meets her," said Reborn almost cheerfully.

Figures all he needed to properly bond with his foolish student was a proper target and some very strong motivation for a proper mafia-style revenge. Melody was already being a good influence on her brother... Reborn hadn't had to shoot him more than once or twice since they rescued her!

"This is a mess and a half. At least I'll finally get some answers as to what happened to our mother... I got in contact with one of the few people she named specifically that knew she was pregnant while in school."

"So what's the hold up?" asked Reborn. The sooner they were out of England, the happier everyone involved would be.

"There's been some unsubtle inquiries about why my mother's personal vaults have suddenly gone active from someone who has nothing to do with them in the first place. I _know_ she never would have put him on the access list so I have no idea why he's even asking about them."

"He could have put a flag on them," said Reborn.

"That's what I suspect anyway. Fortunately there's no way he's going to take Melody away from me. The paperwork went through so now I'm her legal and magical guardian since I already passed the first exams."

It would become permanent when he turned seventeen and passed the secondary exams, by which point he was considered a legal adult.

"What about her father's accounts?"

"I had them seal it until she either turns fifteen and passes a mandatory amount of magical exams with high marks, or when she reaches her magical majority and graduates. At most she'll be able to use her trust vault, but that's it. Nothing is allowed to go out without going through a lot of red tape, and the only thing I allowed to go freely was general taxes and upkeep expenses. Everything else they're required to give me a head's up first," said Dino. "Not that it really matters since the goblin's apparently gave my mother's personal account a 'Mistress Stipend' when she was 'married' to James."

And considering how well off the Potters were, his mother's vaults had been pretty flush with gold and silver. Likely because she had never bothered to touch them since the accident.

Reborn nodded with open approval. It seemed Dino was _finally_ getting his head on straight as a mafia boss.

Seeing the door open, Dino grinned and bent down so Melody could hug his neck. She seemed to relish in the chance to be carried and hugged, and Dino spoiled her rotten.


	2. Chapter 2

Melody Evans (she had dropped the name Potter the first chance she had upon learning of her 'fame' among the magical enclaves) looked at her homework with an adorable expression of concentration.

Upon learning she actually _did_ have a brain, but had been forced to keep her grades down to avoid even more trouble from the fools she had been dumped on, Reborn put his considerable skills as a tutor to use and bribed the girl with lessons on Italian in exchange for not fudging her homework.

Considering the interest Melody had shown upon learning her brother was half-Italian and her mother would have stayed there if she hadn't been tricked, the bribe was more than sufficient.

"Hmm... Good, but you got two wrong," said Reborn. He gently patted her on the head, after seeing her flinch at the first sound of raised voices. If he didn't know Dino was going to drive Vernon to suicide and Petunia to the mental asylum for what they did to his sister, he might have arranged a slow and very painful accident for the abuse and neglect.

He honestly didn't know the boy had it in him, but he was rather pleased to see that Dino wasn't entirely hopeless. Apparently all he needed was proper motivation to actually _act_ like a proper mafia boss.

Reborn had the distinct feeling that Dino's reluctance on the matter was going to vanish very quickly since he now had a little sister to protect and take care of. Now if only he could do something about the boy's clumsy nature.

Melody smiled shyly. Reborn was strange, but rather nice even if he did use her brother as target practice. The first time she saw that she had a panic attack, but when she realized Reborn never aimed anywhere _fatal_ or permanently damaging and was simply trying to motivate Dino the only way he knew how, she calmed down.

Dino wouldn't be surprised in the least if being around Reborn for a while acclimatized his sister to the mafia. Or at least got her used to chaos.

"Redo number 4 and 10 and if you need help feel free to ask your brother," said Reborn. Fifteen minutes later Melody handed her homework back, and he nodded with approval. "You're better at this than your brother is."

Melody smiled at him.

Dino came in looking exhausted. He hated having to deal with the magicals, and the inbred morons of the English enclaves made everything worse. On the plus side, Vernon was quickly learning why it had been such a poor idea to treat his baby sister like he had. He had lost his house, his car and his reputation in short order...and that was _before_ Dino let it slip to the neighbors exactly what his sister's condition had been when he found out about her.

"Rough day?" snarked Reborn. Dino didn't even do more than glance at him when he saw where his tutor was. Reborn had taken to acting as a buffer between Melody and her nightmares, since this was one thing he couldn't actually help Dino with. He was a 'muggle' after all.

"Just a senile old man butting his nose into things that aren't his business," said Dino with a groan. He didn't know why the headmaster of the school his mother attended was so interested in the reason her personal vaults had become active, but it pissed him off that he had to wait four very long hours before the old man was finally kicked out of the building. By now Dino firmly had the suspicion that the old man had a flag on his mother's accounts and was trying to find out who was accessing them.

Dumbledore wasn't family and from what little he had found out was directly responsible for where his sister had been placed. More to the point he had been the 'leader' of the side his mother had fought on and had been chiefly responsible for most of the 'excuses' for why she had never come back.

"Sir, there's a Remus Lupin here to see you," said Romario.

Dino quietly picked up his sister and put her in a different room, where Reborn joined them. Romario was competent enough to act as back-up, and from what little he knew of English magicals they were mostly idiots who overly relied on their sticks to fight.

Remus looked terrible, but that was to be expected of a werewolf so soon after the full moon had passed.

"I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you put your wand or wands on the table for the moment. It's not that I don't trust you, but I'd rather not take chances when I'm not entirely sure you're the same person I contacted. The same goes for any potions outside of anything medical," said Dino apologetically.

"Perfectly understandable and I can appreciate the sensible amount of precaution you're taking since we've never met before," said Remus with approval. Moody would have liked his common sense, that was for certain. "So you have questions about Lily?"

"Just to clarify that you are the same Remus Lupin she spoke of, do you remember anything particular happening at the beginning of February with Lily was in her sixth year?" asked Dino.

Remus blinked, before realization came upon his features.

"Ah. If you are referring to what I think you are, then I helped to remove her from Hogwarts for a few days until she returned and her best friend quit having to use polyjuice to cover up the fact she was missing. She also returned the Marauder's Map to me, since we no longer needed to hide the fact she wasn't in the castle from James. I only wish Dumbledore hadn't sent me out on so many missions for the Order, or I could have prevented the travesty that occurred. I'm still not entirely sure why James actually believed the marriage was legal in the first place."

Dino relaxed slightly.

"So you know."

"I'm guessing you're the child she managed to hide from the school until you were born. I know she loved telling me what she could about her son before her memory suddenly vanished. I'm not entirely certain it was actual amnesia, or if someone got tired of her attempts to return to Italy and simply took advantage of the chaos on the battlefield to hit her with an obliviate of her memories outside England," he admitted. "By the time I knew something was terribly wrong, it was far too late to put a proper stop to the wedding without revealing your existence to the Order and James."

Dino blinked at that.

"What?"

"Your mother was a brilliant witch. However considering the amount of betrayal going on she didn't want to risk your life on the off chance someone mentioned her son to the wrong person. And while James was a good friend of mine, he was entirely too pleased at finally being able to marry the girl he had been more or less stalking for years. I wasn't about to challenge one of the few people who stood up for me despite my condition when he was one of the strongest protections I had from being branded a traitor outright and would have likely brought Sirius into it," said Remus sadly. "I do know that after Melody was born Lily found any excuse she could think of to force James to sleep on the couch or from touching her. She spent quite a bit of time with your sister, though most chalked it up to the fact that Melody was her first 'known' child."

Lily rarely let her daughter out of her sight, and everyone (except Remus) had thought it was a first time mother's paranoia combined with the way things were at the time. If Lily had survived the end of the war Remus had fully planned to help her permanently relocate out of England with her daughter. Sadly he never got the chance to do so.

"So what exactly happened to my mother?" asked Dino. He kept getting broad details, not the specifics he wanted.

"Dumbledore caught wind of some sort of prophecy involving a child born at the end of the seventh month which involved a non-specified Dark Lord. Unfortunately one of the Dark Lord's spies was also present when it was given and heard enough to give the man a general idea of who to target. There were two couples who fit the description who had children born on roughly the day specified. For some reason he went after Lily and James. I have no idea what was done or how it happened, but Melody survived a direct encounter with nothing more than a cursed scar that from what I can tell was never properly examined by healers. I do recall Lily looking into the Potter family magics which involved a lot of old and forgotten wards... James tried to use the family library so he could get off the couch and actually spend time with his 'wife'. It failed rather spectacularly because she left a bottle of good booze where Sirius could find it and he dragged James into a night of some rather embarrassing drunken debauchery which Lily used against him the second he returned home."

Remus knew most of the ways Lily had kept James from touching her because he had been the one to help supply _ideas_ on how to keep his 'friend' firmly away from her.

Dino looked at his mother's closest friend. Sure, the man was a werewolf, but he saw absolutely no reason why he could just make a few arrangements.

"I believe you," said Dino after a moment.

Remus would have said something, but the door opened and he saw a very familiar face.

"Cub?" he said in shock. She was skinnier than he was (though he could tell she was putting on weight), and was entirely too submissive. He gave Dino a hard look. "What happened to her?"

"Dumbledore happened," Dino spat out, easily picking his sister up and letting her sit in his lap. Imagine his shock learning she was barely five years younger than he was... he would have thought she was much younger. "He dumped her on Petunia without even asking citing blood wards. Either he's an idiot or he deliberately forgot the fact that such wards require active magic to sustain themselves and in that neighborhood the only one who could have done so was her."

Now Remus was pissed. It sounded far too much like the headmaster had willfully placed the worst sort of wards to 'protect' Melody. And he knew far too well Petunia's views on Lily. Her appearance was more than enough testament to how angry she was at raising her niece.

Melody looked at him with wide eyes, before she said cautiously...

"Uncle Moony?"

Remus looked to Dino for permission first, and was pleasantly surprised when he got a nod in return. Rather than pick her up though, he merely ruffled her hair.

"Yes cub, it's me. I'm sorry I couldn't come get you myself, but there are a lot of people who don't like those with my condition and would have raised a major stink about me adopting you."

Melody looked him right in the eye, before hugging him tightly.

"I believe you Uncle Moony," she said quietly. "I missed you and uncle Padfoot."

"Where is Sirius Black?" asked Dino.

"In Azkaban. Officially he 'betrayed' the Potters, but there is no way in hell I'd believe that. Unofficially the only reason I haven't spoken up about the matter is because I have absolutely no idea who was complicit in what happened to Lily. The two of them were rather close, but I have no idea whether Sirius would have aided James in what happened if he knew the full story or even suspected it. It's entirely possible that James merely suffered from what is commonly known as the 'Black Madness', except it was discreet enough no one picked up on it."

Dino made a note to visit Black with veritaserum to get the full, unbiased story. You couldn't lie while the potion was in effect, but you retained enough control that you could keep your mouth shut and simply not answer.

"Do you have any idea what caused our mother's amnesia in the first place?" asked Dino.

"The healers all claimed it was a head wound, but the fact she _specifically_ couldn't remember Italy or anything to do with it makes me suspect someone deliberately hit her with an oblivaite to target only those memories and gave her the light head wound to cover it. I would have asked around, except James was starting to get suspicious and I wasn't about to tempt his jealousy from rearing it's head. He was extremely territorial around Lily and even insured that she was firmly driven away from her childhood friend Severus Snape. The day Snape accidentally said the word that drove them apart, he had been having one of his rows with James for an hour before immediately running into Lily within five minutes of it."

Dino's disgust with James Potter was only going up the more he learned of the man. It sounded like he was either a Mist or possibly a Cloud that had effectively declared Lily Evans _his_ and no one had bothered to step in and correct it. In fact the more he heard about Potter's behavior, the more it sounded like Dumbledore and the teachers had deliberately allowed the obsession to grow to unacceptable levels simply because he was a "Gryffindor" and therefor couldn't possibly do any wrong because that house was considered the "good" house while Slytherins were unequivocally considered _evil_.

Dino really hated the English enclaves. While he wasn't entirely welcome in the Italian ones because he was firmly mafia at this point, at least they didn't have nearly as many problems as these idiots.

"Do you know if he has a mundane address?" asked Dino.

"I'm sorry, no. We weren't exactly close and he was always resentful about the fact I never did more to curb James and Sirius...it really didn't help that Sirius almost tricked him into meeting me on a full moon," said Remus apologetically.

Dino frowned.

"Wait... Sirius Black thought it was acceptable into setting another student to meet a half-grown _werewolf_ on the full moon? Why?"

"I never bothered to ask. I just assumed it had something to do with the fact that he had a rough summer, what with running away from the house and all. His mother wasn't exactly a...pleasant... human being," said Remus tactfully.

A lot of things weren't adding up, and some were starting to shine a light on something being very wrong with the English enclaves.

Dino noticed Melody was looking sleepy, so he picked her up properly and let her head rest on his shoulder.

"You can stay the night here, just know some of my men are going to be within sight at all times with tranq guns," said Dino evenly. Remus seemed to be the only person who was on his mother's side in this entire mess and while that bought him some leeway, he wasn't taking chances.

"Fair enough," admitted Remus. He desperately needed actual sleep and food, and if possible a proper bath. His body was in agony after another transformation.

Dino was a very polite host, even if the odd "child" beside him sent every instinct in his body into overdrive screaming "Dangerous, DO NOT PISS OFF". The fact Moony was giving this "Reborn" a wary distance said volumes that this was absolutely not a child. A curse, perhaps?

* * *

Severus Snape was not having a good month. It had started with Dumbledore asking about Lily and only seemed to go downhill from there. From what the old goat could tell, it seemed Petunia had found out about Lily's vaults and was trying to access them. The problem was that she had _somehow_ managed to lock the Potter vaults, which meant a number of 'donations' and other payments were abruptly stopped and there was rumor of a goblin audit into who had accessed those vaults when the owner wasn't even old enough to use them yet.

The problem? Petunia was _firmly_ a muggle and shouldn't have been able to access Diagon in the first place, much less been able to convince the goblins into doing anything with the Potter account when she would only have access to Lily's personal account.

Then there was the notice that the "Legal and Magical Guardian" of one "Melody Evans" had been changed from Dumbledore to an unknown third party. Which wouldn't have meant much, except for the fact that Lily's maiden name was Evans and with her vaults suddenly seeing so much activity since her death meant that Dumbledore was very worried about what was going on.

He didn't _like_ unknowns and this had the potential to throw several well laid plans into the gutter with no way of ever recovering them.

Snape took a long pull of his drink. Somehow he had the distinct feeling that a lot of things were going to change very soon...some for the better.


	3. Chapter 3

Dino was heartily glad that their time in England was coming to an end. He just had to fix a few loose ends before he could safely consider leaving and not having it come back to bite him in the ass later.

Starting with one Sirius Black. The sooner he was done with that piece of business the sooner he could make a certain potion master a job offer.

Just because he didn't like England didn't mean that there wasn't any crossover between the magicals and the mafia. Just took a bit of creative thinking to find out where the muggleborns were and track down those who knew his mother or were _very_ open to a good job offer even if it meant leaving England behind.

Honestly, it's like no one thought to properly exploit the fact that Hogwarts was an educational black hole for those coming out of mundane homes. Sure, he'd have to explain the cultural differences and lessen the blow for them, and possibly provide some much needed medical care, but the fact was he was about to get a large number of fully trained witches and wizards who could maintain some of his business ventures at a fraction of the normal cost and merely had to be sworn in as members of his Family to be covered by Omerta enough for the Vindice to be satisfied with.

Best of all they'd be loyal because he was openly improving their quality of life and he could easily insure that those with stricter morals stuck to his "legal" business ventures and the rest were filtered through the "mafia" side of things.

(Reborn, when he discovered this particular tidbit had been practically _glowing_ with pride at his student for using the English enclaves' own system against them to get several useful lower members for his family. And here he had been entirely _against_ coming in the first place over what he had considered a very minor matter!)

It took very little to bribe the guards to drag Black to a smaller room without any dementors to mess things up. He wanted straight answers, not a gibbering wreck.

Black looked openly confused at what was going on, at least until Dino pulled out the veritaserum and offered him a chance to explain things.

The blond tried not to stare much when Black all but leaped at the chance to proclaim his innocence once and for all.

"Did you betray the Potters?"

"Not a chance in hell," said Sirius in a monotone.

"Were you complicit in Lily Evans losing her memory during the war?"

"I was only made aware of the amnesia after the fact. I wasn't even present during that particular battle," said Sirius immediately.

"Did James display any signs of 'Black Madness' or any other worrying signs that his mind wasn't inherently stable?" asked Dino pointedly.

Sirius paused for a good long minute, before he reluctantly admitted "I suspected something was terribly wrong sixth year when he drove Lily and Severus apart, a week before I heard that I supposedly convinced Snape into finding Remus during a full moon. James was also increasingly irate over the fact Lily immediately moved to Italy after graduation despite the fact she was his 'girlfriend' for a year and a half."

Dino filed that information away, as it merely confirmed what he was already suspecting about James Potter and his mental state.

"Did you suspect Lily was hiding something from you after the 'accident'?" he asked bluntly.

"I knew she was hiding something. I just thought it was the fact she was already married to someone in Italy, since the Potter tapestry had her labeled as a 'mistress' despite the fact they were married," said Sirius confused.

Honestly, how the hell did James _miss_ that? Sirius had to do a complete double take when he realized the frame around Lily's picture was all wrong and had to look at some of the "confirmed" mistresses over the years to realize that Lily had clearly been hiding the fact she was already married from them.

Which explained pretty quick why she wanted to _leave_ and return to Italy as soon as possible.

"Why didn't you speak up about the fact you knew she was already married?"

"Same reason Remus likely kept his mouth shut. There are a lot of people who put far too much stock in my family name and the fact I was raised in a 'dark' household to risk the chance of James turning on me and having to deal with both sides after my ass," said Sirius without any hesitation whatsoever.

Dino was really starting to loathe James Potter and that idiot of a Latent Sky Dumbledore. There was no way everyone missed _all_ the signs there was something wrong with him unless they deliberately looked the other way.

Dino handed Sirius the antidote. He had all the information he needed for now.

"What would you give in order to be out of this place and relocated to a place where no one would actually give a damn about your supposed 'crimes'?" he asked bluntly.

Because really, the supposed "kill count" was barely worth a "Meh" in the eyes of the mafia. The betrayal, on the other hand... that would have raised several flags if he had betrayed his blood brother.

"Who do you want dead and how messy do you want it to be?" asked Sirius in an equally blunt tone. "The only thing I care about is gutting that damn rat and finding my goddaughter."

Dino looked him dead in the eye and said "I believe you. And your goddaughter is perfectly safe, even if the one with her is a chaotic pain in the ass."

Sirius' eyes gleamed in a way that Dino did not like. It said something that he had developed a radar for chaos under Reborn's not-so-tender tutelage.

"Chaos?"

"Oh god..." said Dino, face-palming. "You're someone who thrives in making things 'interesting' and enjoys the suffering of others, aren't you?"

"Only if they really deserve it," said Sirius far too cheerfully for his sanity.

Dino groaned.

"Not in my house or near me. I have enough paperwork as it is. As for your freedom, I'm going to need you to make several oaths and sign a binding contract before you see my sister or get near her. Remus was quick to sign one once I made it clear it was nonnegotiable."

"Your sister?" said Sirius, eyes narrowing on Dino with intensity. Comprehension came onto his features. "You're Lily's son, aren't you?"

"I am, and I am really starting to loathe the name Potter and anything to do with him with how badly he hurt my mother," said Dino flatly. "It may take a few days but we can liberate you and make it look like you died in the cell or something to throw off suspicion. The English magicals are all idiots so changing your name and appearance should be enough to throw them off."

Sirius looked thoughtful.

"Always wanted to dabble in non-magical healing myself. Had no idea how to go about it though."

Lily would have helped when he expressed an honest interest (she had been the one to introduce him to those first aid classes after all) except with how the war had ended he never had a chance to continue it. He was a healer without the oaths, not that many were aware of that fact.

Ironically his background made it easier to save the lives of others... the best way to _break_ a deadly curse was to know how to _cast_ the bloody thing after all. And he had been an avid learner, even if his mother had not been pleased with _why_ he was learning it.

He wondered how McGonagall would have reacted if she had known he had only said "auror" to keep an eye on James when he really wanted to learn medicine.

The only reason he remembered most of his training was because the memory was always accompanied with the bitter pain of regret that he would never be able to use enough healing spells because of dementor exposure and the atrophy in his core. It was all he could do to use the animagus transformation and his occulmency barriers in here.

* * *

Snape was only reading the morning news **"Sirius Black: dead in prison!"** when he heard a car driving up the road.

 _That_ was unusual, because by and large he didn't get visitors. Much less those that knew what a car was and how to operate it.

However the second he saw the teen come out of the back with his bodyguard (and likely right hand, if he was reading the signs correctly) he _knew_ exactly who that boy was.

He might have foreign blood in him, but he was clearly someone related to Lily.

Which would definitely explain why her vaults were suddenly active again and who had been acting on Melody's behalf with the goblins. He could tell the boy was magically trained without having been introduced.

"Are you Severus Snape?" he asked pleasantly.

"I am."

"My name is Dino Chaivarone and my mother was said to have been a good friend of yours. I was hoping we could have a chat," said Dino.

"...Considering the state of my house would you be offended if we did this outside?" inquired Snape. He just knew he was going to need a long drink after this.

"Not at all."

What followed was a very enlightening conversation. He had known _something_ was up with Lily sixth year... she had made it very clear she didn't trust Potter in the least so her sudden decision to 'date' the bastard had always seemed highly suspicious.

Finding out the man was just as bad as Bellatrix (though far more subtle about it) was surprising, but not altogether shocking. It explained why he started up that argument sixth year shortly before Lily ran into him while his temper was still firmly in the red. Considering the timing, it was possible that her pregnancy hormones were also a major factor.

Then there was the bombshell that Black might not have been the one to direct him to Lupin in the first place.

If Potter really _was_ responsible for the near death encounter, then any life-debt that was owed was immediately nullified. And it meant that if he could find a way to get rid of the damn tattoo on his arm, that he could get out of the deal he made with Dumbledore.

The old man had enabled Potter in his depravity and outright encouraged the bastard. He was just as culpable as the other teachers in what happened.

"Hypothetically if I were to try and give you a job far from England..."

"If you can find a way to remove the Dark Mark and get me out fast enough, I'll sign any contract you want. Just don't make me teach," said Snape flatly. "The only reason I even work at that damn school is because the old bastard blackmailed me into it and is using the Life Debt I supposedly owe James Potter to stick around long enough to teach his daughter."

Dino's eyes were hard.

"How about instead of thinking of my sister as James Potter's spawn, you think of her more as Lily Evan's daughter?" he suggested.

"So long as she never falls into the same behavior as Potter, I can live with that," said Snape.

"As for the Dark Mark... I'd need to find out what sort of spells were put into it. Tattoo removal is possible, but messy. The spells however are another matter."

Snape found himself hopeful for the first time in years. Unlike some, he knew damn well what the name "Chaivarone" meant in Italy and kept his ear to the ground when it came to the underworld. The fact Lily apparently married into the mafia was a bit of a shock, but if she had been in the family way then it made perfect sense. She _was_ Catholic Irish after all...they had a very dim view of unwed mothers.

God knows Petunia never would have let her sister live it down that she had gotten pregnant just shy of graduating.

* * *

Melody was rather eager to leave England far, far behind. Not only was she in new clothes that actually fit, but she had a few stuffed animals to cuddle with and a big brother who never hesitated to let her wrap her arms around his neck to assure herself that he was real and that she would never have to go back to that horrible family again.

Sure, Reborn was a strange person who looked younger than he actually was, but he was very nice to her and when he praised her ability to get her homework questions right she knew he meant it. And if she asked nicely, then he let her hug him. Leon was a total sweetheart too.

"Ready to go, Melody?" asked Dino gently.

This trip had been a total headache but worth every minute. Not only did he finally get answers to his mother's death, but he got a sister and several hundred new potential members for his family that would help him bring the Chiavarone out of the doghouse financially.

Melody eagerly wrapped her arms around her brother, happily snuggling into the side of his neck. Dino noted with some relief she was starting to put on a healthy weight. She looked much better than the malnourished waif Reborn discovered in that boot cupboard. He didn't mind in the least that his sister had a habit of demanding hugs or being carried around.

It was a miracle she had latched onto him so easily, considering she had been touch-starved since their mother died, and the only physical contact she had until that point was the abusive kind.

Then again she could be reacting to his Sky Flames.

"Is Artemis coming with us, big brother?"

"Considering I got her specifically to keep in contact with the goblins, yes," said Dino. Melody had absolutely fallen in love with the snow owl that Dino had bought to handle any magical communication. He really hated how outdated the English were, but keeping an owl around was a small price to pay for reliable communication.

There had been a really weird staring contest between Leon and Artemis, but oddly it had passed and Dino would swear he sometimes saw the owl giving Leon and Reborn rides.

"You know the rest of the men are going to spoil her rotten the second words gets out you brought back a sister," commented Romario.

The Family had adored Master Dino growing up, and with how sweet young Melody was she would have them wrapped around her finger in a week at the most.

"Considering the people we saved her from, she deserves to be spoiled so long as we don't let it go to her head," said Dino. "One thing is for certain though...there's no way in _hell_ she is going a hundred meters of Hogwarts."

It had been the inbred idiots who attended that school who had gotten his mother killed in the first place. He didn't care if he had to bring his sister into the mafia... he wasn't going to let her suffer the idiocy of the English magical enclaves.

"And here I thought this trip was going to end up another reason I need to train you harder," said Reborn, enjoying the flinch from Dino. "Instead you turn around and give me a pleasant surprise that you do have _some_ mafia instincts after all."

Dino beamed at Reborn. Coming from him that was a very high compliment.

"I'm still using you as target practice of course," continued Reborn.

Dino would have been depressed, but honestly he had expected that from Reborn at this point.

"You won't hurt him will you Uncle Reborn?" asked Melody innocently, causing everyone _except_ Reborn and Melody to choke at the name.

Reborn patted her on the head indulgently.

"Nothing permanent, principessa," he agreed. "Your brother _is_ a bit dense after all."

"He is very clumsy," agreed Melody with a giggle.

"Who's side are you on?" whined Dino lightly.

"Uncle Reborn's," she said immediately.

Dino would have stumbled...except he was carrying Melody which made a face-vault a bad idea. He looked at Reborn's amused smirk and groaned loudly instead.

"Why do I have the feeling the two of you are going to be conspiring against me later?"

"Because you're not an idiot like Dudley?" said Melody.

"You're being mean to me," complained Dino jokingly.

"Mafia bosses don't whine to their younger sisters, Stupid-Dino," said Reborn with a slap to the head.

And with that, equilibrium was restored before they even stepped foot on Italian soil.


	4. Chapter 4

**Everyone, if it says I've updated and you still don't see the chapter, please DON'T panic. Odds are that I've posted it via the mobile app, which for some reason Fanfiction hates. From what I can tell it seems to have a time delay from when I post it and when it will show up.**

* * *

Romario's guess about Melody being spoiled rotten by the other men was spot on. She had them wrapped around her fingers in two days minimum, rather than the week he had jokingly stated.

She was a total sweetheart and shy around most. However if her brother was in the room she brightened up like the sun and wouldn't hesitate to wrap her arms around him. Most surprising was the way Reborn reacted to her.

He was far gentler with Melody than he ever was with Dino, and much more patient.

There was also the fact that both Dino and Reborn were _extremely_ overprotective of Melody. Little scrapes and bruises from childish misadventures were fine, but heaven help you if you actively threatened her life.

As the foolish famiglia found out when they surrounded Dino and Melody in the street one day when Leon was acting up. The second one of them managed to separate Melody from her brother, there was an ungodly amount of killing intent that came off Reborn and Dino both.

"You have exactly three seconds to release my sister before I kill you all," said Dino coldly.

They clearly thought Dino was bluffing, because they pushed the gun just a bit closer to her head. Melody to her credit didn't do more than flinch briefly before a flicker of something passed in her eyes. They knew she was Inactive, but they had no idea what her type was.

Leon exploded, revealing a whip and a...turtle? Dino pocketed the animal and took the whip with a dark expression in his eyes.

"Last chance, release my little sister or else."

He only had to hear the first fool laugh before he lost patience with them all. The first one to fall was the bastard holding Melody, who put her skills at running to good use and ran straight to where Reborn was. He didn't even say a word once he had Leon safely on his hat again when she picked him up and held him close. Only an idiot would try to get past Reborn.

When it was all said and done, Dino looked winded and Reborn had the same proud look he had when they left England.

Reborn patted Melody on the head when the fools were removed.

"Now what did we learn today?"

"That Uncle Reborn is the greatest hit man to have ever lived and only idiots challenge his students?" said Melody tilting her head.

Reborn's smirk widened a bit hearing that.

"Close enough. And you were a good girl, not giving them any reason not to shoot you by accident."

"They weren't that scary. Not like you without your morning coffee," said Melody with a light shrug. Dino choked back a laugh, because he completely agreed with that sentiment. Reborn was positively hellish without his morning dose of "proper coffee". Then Melody's face got a bit odd. "Besides, the idiot had the safety on."

"How do you know he had the safety on?" asked Reborn intently.

"I've seen the men around the estate walk around with guns and a few of them let me look at them without removing them from the holster. I know Leon never transforms with a safety on and that there was a chance the gun could have just as easily misfired in his hand. It looked like the man hadn't bothered to clean in properly in some time."

Reborn looked very pleased with that answer... Melody was much more observant than her brother, that was for certain. It only took a few moments to find the gun that the goon had been holding against her to confirm her quick observation under some rather deadly pressure. He patted her firmly on the head with a very happy expression on his face.

"Good girl."

Melody beamed at him. It helped that Dino had been very quick to get her contacts, since the Dursleys never took her to see the optometrist more than once when the teachers complained. Even she knew that prescriptions changed regularly and that it was better to get checked at least once a year.

In fact Reborn was so pleased with her observation skills that he decided to teach her how to maintain and properly fire a crossbow. Better to get her used to semi-legal weapons before introducing her to the fine art of using a proper firearm.

He was even more pleased when he found out Melody already knew the creed of any proper mafia lady.

There was a time and place for the truth when it came to civilians about your family.

That time was never, and that place did not exist unless the civilians were willing to ditch several morals and wouldn't run to the cops or an enemy Famiglia with the information.

* * *

It was a perfectly normal day. The sun was shining, Reborn was tormenting Dino in the name of training, there was a plate of suspicious food on the table that was smoking more than a slightly ominous manner...

Wait, what?

Melody was staring at the plate of baked goods with some confusion. She _knew_ eating it was a really, really bad idea...but had honestly no idea where it had come from.

The kitchen staff had been more than happy to let her expand the skills the Dursleys had forced her to learn (and more than slightly appalled at their diet if the only things Melody was allowed to cook were all heavy in fats and sugars), so Dino had made it a point to try everything his sister made to encourage her in her hobby.

And Melody was very sure she had placed the tiramisu and brownies with bits of coffee-flavored caramel on the table, not this cake.

Dino came up and saw his sister's confusion.

"What's wrong, little sunshine?" asked Dino. Dino had, in an effort to help the nightmares, decided to sing "You are my Sunshine" in Italian. It was now his go-to lullaby when his sister had trouble sleeping...she had only just now gotten used to sleeping alone.

As a consequence, one of the pet names he had for her was "Sunshine". Or he'd call her a "silly Filly" whenever she was being mischievous, which was often...after he explained what a filly and a colt were anyway.

"There's cake on the table."

Dino looked at it and immediately frowned.

"Was there cake on the table before?"

"No. I brought out brownies and tiramisu for Uncle Reborn."

"I see," said Dino, already guessing what happened from the cake alone. "Don't eat any of it, okay? I don't want you to get sick."

"It smells funny anyway," announced Melody.

Dino suspicions on the origin of the 'cake' were confirmed a few minutes later when Bianchi arrived to try and kill him with her poison cooking. Reborn allowed it as a training exercise, but the fact she had left it out in a place where Melody would find it pissed him off.

Which was why he felt perfectly justified for his reaction to this fact.

Bianchi couldn't dodge the punch to the face in time, and her food crashed to the ground and caused the grass to die wherever it touched. The fact Dino followed the sudden attack with using his whip as a restraint meant Bianchi wasn't likely to get away anytime soon.

"Dino, why did you punch her?" asked Reborn, as if commenting on the weather. He wasn't angry, he just wanted to hear Dino's reasoning first.

"She put her poison cooking where Melody would find it. Listen here, _Poison Scorpion_ ," hissed Dino, pulling the whip and causing Bianchi's arms to be pinned in a more painful manner behind her while staying within eyesight, "I could care less about attempts on my own life, but you crossed the line leaving that damn cake of yours where my _sister_ could find it. If I catch you on my family grounds again I will not hesitate to order my men to shoot you on sight, woman or not. Am I clear?"

Bianchi hissed from the pain before she said "Crystal."

"Good. Now leave and don't come back or I'll do more than punch you," said Dino, letting her up. The fact he kept his whip on hand and had a look in his eyes told her he was dead serious in that he wouldn't hesitate to take her out.

This was not the brat she targeted before. There was a steel and a sense of purpose in him that had been sorely lacking before. The fact she saw a proud look on Reborn's face said volumes about how profound the change was.

Of course that wasn't the end of it. Within a few weeks of the confrontation (in which most of the mafia had heard that Dino Chaivorone had finally grown a pair and was acting like a proper mafia boss) another visitor came to the mansion. This one far louder and arguably more dangerous than Bianchi could have hoped to be.

"Voi! Finally heard your balls dropped, Bucking Horse."

"Squalo," said Dino grinning. "Mind keeping that sort of language away from the house? I really don't want my sister asking questions about what it means."

"Voi. You mean the rumor you have a little sister is true? I though you were the only one of the old man's kids left?" asked Squalo.

"She's related to me through my mother, not my father," said Dino. "Imagine my shock when I went to get answers only to find out I had a half-sister in England."

"...Mind if we sniff around your new recruits for some potential Quality? Mammon's been rather irate that you've managed to find an easily exploited resource that would keep the repair and cleaning bills down and wanted to know if you'd be willing to share it with an old school friend," admitted Squalo.

"Sure, I don't mind and some of the more dangerous former hit-wizards and witches would probably be happy... wait, what do you mean 'we'?" said Dino.

"Boss decided he'd rather come with instead of having to deal with yet another ridiculous meeting with Vongola Nono that accomplishes nothing. Think he's in one of your sitting rooms," said Squalo.

"Oh god..." said Dino, already hurrying to try and keep Xanxus far, far away from his sister.

Only for Squalo, Dino _and_ Reborn to stare at the scene before them. Melody was calmly sitting next to Xanxus looking through a book of creatures that were common in the magical society and discussing which would make the best pet/intimidation factor for a mafioso. Artemis was on Xanxus' shoulder preening his hair.

"What..."

Xanxus looked up from the book and snorted when he saw the gobsmacked expression on Dino's face.

"Trash."

"...How long have you two been in here?"

"Since Melody noticed his feathers and asked what breed of bird they were from. The two of them clicked almost immediately for no apparent reason," said Reborn.

Xanxus gave a calm, nonthreatening smirk as he ruffled Melody's hair.

"Kid's a fucking survivor," he said with approval, which got Melody to smile at him. "What's her Flame type?"

"We have no idea. She's borderline Active, but she hasn't managed to bring it out yet and we're not eager to find out until we have her magical education firmly sorted out," said Dino without thinking.

He was still in shock that his sister had bonded to _Xanxus_ of all people so fast. She was generally very shy around strangers and rarely got along with them within such a short time span. Then again, he was technically a subset of a Sky, so maybe that was a factor.

"He said we can look through the people he picked up out of England Boss," said Squalo.

Xanxus eyed Melody.

"Think we should bring the Prince brat with us next time?"

Dino's mind stalled at the thought of having to deal with the new Varia Storm. What little he had heard didn't inspire friendly thoughts.

"No pairing off my sister with your officers," growled Dino.

Xanxus rolled his eyes at that.

"I was thinking more of giving the brat someone to talk to his own age and possibly keep him in line," said Xanxus.

"Oh. That's okay so long as he doesn't try to kill her then," said Dino. A thought occurred to him. "Think Mammon would be willing to help me with a side project? I have a man willing to jump ship and join my famiglia that's a potion master, but he can't leave while he has the dark mark on his arm."

"I'll ask," said Xanxus.

Left unspoken was the fact that now he had met Melody there was a distinct possibility he would be a regular visitor on the estate. She reminded him quite a bit of his grandmother Daniela... she just needed a bit of polish to be really effective.

It was as they were leaving that Xanxus decided to bring up something he noticed about Melody.

"Would you object to me introducing my grandmother to your sister? Positive female influence and all that."

The fact Daniela had used a crossbow as her primary weapon and could teach Melody several tricks didn't hurt either.

Dino blinked at the question.

"Why her? Not that I'm objecting, since it means I could avoid having to explain puberty to her later if it works out."

Xanxus had a pained look on his face.

"She's bored and has decided to take it upon herself to get great grandbabies to spoil before she goes. Guess who got the short end of that particular stick, since the others can tolerate hiding behind the old man?" he said grimacing.

Dino laughed and lightly put his hand on Xanxus' shoulder.

"Say no more. Feel free to redirect her my way so long as you give me at least an hour's warning first."

Xanxus grinned at him with relief. He felt a lot calmer than he was used to after being around Melody.

"Appreciated. Might send Belphegor and Mammon down within the week."

Mammon was more than happy to help with the dark mark issue... provided the man Dino was planning to add to his family would be willing to brew healing potions for Lussuria and the Sun division and other semi-illegal potions.

The fact Dino was more than happy to let the Mist take twenty-five percent of all the gold they got by sending them after the idiots who kept spreading the cock and bull stories about Melody's supposed childhood cemented him in Mammon's good books. The goblins were already running an audit on the Potter accounts and recalling all artifacts loaned out by James during the war...with the agreement that any goblin-made items were returned to the goblin clans with Dino's blessing.

Setting the tiny Mist on those idiots was just good business in Dino's opinion. Besides, he really didn't like the English enclaves much anyway.

* * *

 _With Melody and Belphegor_

"So you're a real prince? Which country?" asked Melody innocently.

"Ushishishi... Magical Russia. Bit of a mess when the commoners overthrew our mundane cousins, but the magicals ones knew better," said Belphegor. He looked at her curiously when he realized she actually _believed_ him.

"You mean like in that movie _Anastasia_? I'm afraid my knowledge of Russia is a bit limited," she admitted.

"Similar, except Rasputin is actually a title for the Court Wizard...a bit like the British Queen calls all her court wizards 'Merlin', or if they're female then they're called 'Morgana'," said Belphegor.

"Really?" said Melody.

"Ushishishi. How much do you know about the royalty in the magical society?" he asked.

"Almost nothing. I had no idea magic was real until my brother rescued me from our maternal aunt because she hated our mother. Can you teach me?"

Belphegor's smile was wide and eager. Not only did she actually _believe_ his claim as Prince, but she was actually willing to learn from someone at least two years younger than she was as if he were an adult.

The only reason the Varia didn't look down on him was because he can and would kill most of the lower ranks if they looked at him wrong and they damn well knew it. Didn't stop some of the officers from treating him like a kid though.

"If you like," he agreed.

"Considering she's technically from magical nobility twice over, that's probably a good idea," said Dino, appearing behind Melody. "Overheard you through the open door."

"Magical nobility?" repeated Belphegor intent.

"Her sire was James Potter and her godfather has named her his heir since it's unlikely he would be able to sire any after his false imprisonment. Which means she's the heir to the Ancient and Noble houses of Potter and Black," clarified Dino. "But just to be clear, we do not mention James Potter in any way, shape or form around here for several reasons. If he wasn't dead then I would have gutted the bastard myself."

Belphegor looked openly delighted at that information.

"Is that a good thing?" asked Melody to Belphegor.

"Means that when it comes to the magical high society of any enclave you'd be considered my Royal equal in status," he explained happily.

Melody tilted her head.

"Would you like to be friends?" she asked hopefully.

Belphegor, using every bit of his training as a prince took her right hand and lightly kissed the top of it.

"I would be delighted Principessa."

"Melody is fine, friends shouldn't call each other by titles unless it's to show a united front against people who think they can take advantage of you," said Melody firmly.

Belphegor's grin widened further.

"Then you may call me Bel, my lady," he said with a proper bow. He squeaked a bit when she hugged him.

And didn't noticed the camera or the fact Mammon had just found a new source of blackmail. The tiny Mist was already smirking at the thought of the photo album they were almost certainly going to make.


	5. Chapter 5

Some days it didn't pay to be Minister. Then there were days like this that made him very glad he had more sense than his English cousins.

Making that quiet agreement with the Girl-Who-Lived and her overprotective brother was the best decision he had ever come up with.

The girl was _properly_ trained, they never had to worry about a witch with strong connections to the Cosa Nostra ever entering the Ministry and potentially giving them a foothold to work with, and he got to one up that incompetent moron that was his English counterpart and as an added bonus the senile fool known as Albus Dumbledore.

And all it had taken was a few concessions to the Chiavarone Famiglia when it came to their magical employees and the agreement not to arrest any former hit wizards who joined the Varia so long as the statute was maintained and they didn't have to deal with the ICW on his ass for anything.

So it was with a great deal of amusement and pleasure that when he admitted Albus Dumbledore and Cornelius Fudge into his office, that he was able to firmly deny the fact that "Melody Potter" was even in his country, and even if she was that he had no obligation to hand her over to the English.

"I'm afraid it's imperative that Melody Potter be returned to her relatives. They're quite worried about her," said Dumbledore.

"I find that ironic considering she's currently in the custody of her older brother. There's also the fact that the muggles have clearly stated Petunia Dursley is unfit to be among polite society and her husband killed himself in disgrace," he said pleasantly in return.

"Preposterous. Melody Potter is an only child!" said Fudge.

"That would be true... if her mother hadn't married into a rather respected family when it became known she was in the family way. From what I understand her friends helped to keep everything very discreet until her son was born," he replied back. "Unless you're willing to claim the goblins are incapable of running something as simple as a bloodline test to prove lineage?"

Fudge flinched at the mere thought of that. If he even insinuated anything to that effect the goblins would have his head!

"More to the point, even the muggles were willing to sign over full custody of his sister to him."

Dino had not only provided copies of said paperwork, but a magically binding legal document stating he was her magical guardian and that he would perform his duties or lose his magic and possibly his life.

That was enough for the Italian Minister and more importantly any magical enclave in existence.

Dumbledore looked like he had swallowed an extra sour lemon.

"I see."

"More to the point the girl in question is already receiving a full magical education on top of keeping up with her mundane studies and has made it very clear she had no interest in returning to England any time in the near future."

She attended night classes and did her mundane homework during the day under the most terrifying tutor he had ever had the misfortune of meeting. He had never been more relieved that this "Reborn" was in fact a muggle firmly in the know and that he had been willing to turn a blind eye to any magic so long as they gave him a pass that told their aurors to pretend he was a magical if they encountered him.

And if they didn't believe the pass, well then it wasn't his problem.

"Is there any way we could arrange a meeting with her magical guardian?" asked Dumbledore.

"Her brother has made it abundantly clear he wants his sister to have nothing to do with the people who were responsible for what happened to his mother. And considering the evidence he supplied towards James Potter's crimes against his so-called wife, I'm inclined to agree with him."

"Crimes?" repeated Dumbledore dumbly.

The Italian Minister pulled out a rather lengthy list.

"First and foremost is attempting to create a false life debt with one Severus Snape. The man accused of attempting to kill Signor Snape has absolutely no knowledge or memory of the 'meeting' that lead to his fellow student almost being attacked or bitten by a half-grown werewolf. There are also no signs of him being obliviated of said knowledge. The second are multiple accounts of harassment and stalking of one Lily Evans. Third is his attempt to forcibly subvert Lily Evans as his wife after a rather dubious 'accident' left her without her memories of her family in Italy. Fourth... well you can see where I'm going with this, correct?" said the Italian Minister.

Dumbledore's expression almost made him look like he had been slapped silly by a fish repeatedly.

"Signor Chiavarone had made it abundantly clear that he is displeased none of the teachers at Hogwarts noticed the pattern of rather disturbing behavior and allowed it to continue with a slap on the wrist. He is also rather unhappy with the so-called curriculum of your school. A fact I am also disturbed by considering your claim to be the premiere magical school in Europe."

"What's wrong with my school?" demanded Dumbledore.

"The amount of classes is barely acceptable for a proper magical education, several teachers are entirely incompetent in their ability to teach or knowledge of their subject, the over-emphasis on the houses, the fact that most of your first generation witches and wizards leave the school unable to find work of any kind in either world, the rather disturbing issue regarding bullying... need I go on?"

"Preposterous!" said Fudge. "What proof do you have?"

"Divination, Muggle Studies, Defense Against the Dark Arts and History of Magic," he cited flatly. "One teacher is a drunk, one is several decades out of date in recent developments, one is always being replaced and one is firmly stuck on goblin rebellions and has a habit of putting students to sleep within minutes. If you don't believe me, we can have the recent list of the top twenty magical institutions within an hour."

* * *

Daniela was having a very good day. Not only did she get a charming little girl to spoil/train/dress up, she also got to spend more time with her adopted grandson.

Xanxus looked like he had eaten a bad lemon when he realized his ploy to get her off his back about finding a nice girl had only partially worked. On the plus side, his nonna was usually too busy spoiling Melody rotten to bother him much... generally it only lasted about twenty minutes at most.

That and whenever he dumped Belphegor on Chiavarone the brat came back a lot calmer and much happier. He'd wait until Melody was a better shot with her crossbow before he let her visit the Varia castle to see him rather than have him go to her. No way was he chancing her getting hurt after learning that the infamous Sun Arcobaleno _let_ her call him "Uncle Reborn" and pick him up to cuddle with.

Even Mammon (formerly Viper) had looked shocked at this new information. Right before Melody somehow tricked them into being hugged without demanding payment after turning her wide, innocent eyes on them.

Fucking hilarious.

"So are you planning to enroll your sister in the Mafia Academy?" asked Daniela seriously.

"I seriously considered it, but wanted to give her a chance to acclimate herself to Italy before I took her there. Especially since she's only a member of my family by technicality," admitted Dino. "There's also the fact some idiot might try to take advantage of her to get to me or insure the Chiavarone never got rid of the debt it currently has on it."

The fact Reborn was ridiculously territorial had nothing to do with it. Nope, nothing at all.

Daniela looked at him with open approval. He took his duties as big brother seriously and, amusingly enough, Xanxus seemed to have adopted Melody as a little sister as well if the way he acted around her was any indication. The fact she had started wearing feathers in her hair the same way he did was positively adorable in her opinion.

(Coincidentally Mammon was quick enough to catch Xanxus' expression when he first saw that and take multiple pictures. They were also happy to share them with Daniela for a discount price.)

"It would be easier to keep her safe if she were Flame Active... a bit of proper training on top of the basic lessons I plan to give her would be enough to deter the weaker idiots," mused Daniela.

Dino had jumped at the chance for Melody to learn all the little things a "proper" female in the mafia should know when they were of high standing. Things only another woman would know, much less be able to teach a young girl.

Daniela was one of the rare successful female Dons in history. She had not only held the title long enough to pass it to her son, she had done so during war time and under heavy pressure of keeping the famiglia from collapsing.

More to the point Dino would be spared the highly awkward issue of giving _that_ Talk to his sister in a few short years.

"She's borderline Active, but we've been a bit leery of teaching her how to use Flames."

"Any particular reason why?"

"I highly suspect her genetic donor was partially Flame Active or had a weak one. It would explain quite a bit about his behavior... Mists _are_ known to get dangerously territorial about certain things."

Xanxus snorted.

"Like the miser brat and their money."

"Exactly," said Dino nodding. Getting between Mammon and their money (or Reborn and his coffee and chaos) was downright _suicide_ and they came up with increasingly terrifying ways to make their displeasure known. The more deprived they were, the worse they got until it was easier to slit your own throat. "I'm more than a bit concerned some of that got passed down and you _know_ how being Flame Active effects people."

"Name one example," said Daniela.

"Iemitsu Sawada," said Dino off the top of his head. "Went from being a dedicated son to a narcissistic bastard who won't even call his mother on mother's day, her birthday or any holiday. Also a rumor going around he has a wife and son and has yet to introduce them to his mother and rarely spends any time with them."

"How the fuck would you know something like that?" asked Xanxus incredulous.

"His mother has regular tea time with several ladies of 'distinguished age' from those I hired in England because those idiots tossed them aside for not having 'pure' enough blood and they happened to share the gossip with me while teaching Melody all sorts of little charms that make life easier," he admitted. "They find her adorable and the fact I'm such a good big brother beyond charming."

He had mostly diverted any matchmaking attempts by citing the family finances were still rather rocky and he didn't want to attempt courting anyone until he was reasonably certain that he could support not only his famiglia but also any spouse he chose to marry without even looking at the Potter accounts since he refused to borrow money from his sister's inheritance.

"I see. And what's your opinion of my grandson and his bad habits?"

Xanxus sputtered into his drink.

"I'm fine with his swearing habit so long as Melody doesn't pick that up on top of her new fascination with feathers. No offense but it's not so cute when it's a girl doing the swearing," said Dino.

"None taken," said Xanxus. He was equally baffled at the fact she took the way he swore in almost every sentence in stride, or that he called practically everyone trash.

Melody tilted her head.

"Why should I care about his bad language when he's at least consistent about it?" she asked.

Dino, Daniela and Xanxus blinked at that.

"What do you mean?" asked Daniela.

"He calls everyone trash and it easier to tune out the bad words rather than take offense to it when he uses them so much. At this point I barely register them anymore," admitted Melody.

Xanxus blushed at that.

"If only that fucker Coyote had the same opinion. If I have to hear one more fucking lecture about my language I'm going to shoot him."

"In any case, I'd be happy to help you find appropriate tutors for whatever Flame type she has."

"At least if she was attending the Mafia Academy with me, then the wizards wouldn't have any ground to stand on considering Italy's laws on Active Soul Fire users."

Daniela blinked at that.

"The Italian enclaves have laws about us?"

"If you're magical and have active flames, you have to register what you are and what famiglia (if any) that you're with. Makes it easier for the Obliviator squad to help keep Omerta protected without getting involved since Soul Fire is classed as an inherited magical gift. I think the law states the Vindice has first dibs on anyone stupid enough to break secrecy unless it was a purely magical crime in nature," said Dino.

"That...explains so much," said Daniela after a moment. Like how several scenes of devastation were suddenly fixed in a ridiculous amount of time when the culprits responsible didn't have nearly the same resource as the Vongola or anyone in the area who cared about the damage done.

Like the incident with the Storm Arcobaleno before the curse and a rather large swathe of forest. Fon had been appropriately apologetic about the matter, but the forest had been fixed within days before the satellites ever got wind of the devastation.

"In any case, I'm sure we could at least curb any negative effects on her personality once she's fully Active. From what I understand about that man, most of the problem was that there wasn't anyone with sufficient ability to reign him in when his more disturbing habits made themselves known," said Daniela.

Dino could only hope their mother's blood won out over Potter's.

Which was why he allowed Daniela to walk Melody through activating her Flames properly. Reborn, who had been taking a nap, woke up in time to see the entire show. He was very curious what sort of Dying Will Melody had considering how she grew up.

"Now Melody, I want you to focus on something. Something that's so important you'd be willing to die for it."

Melody's eyes widened.

"I want you to concentrate entirely on that resolve to the point you would die for it and let it fill your body," instructed Daniela. "Then I want you to let it out. And I don't mean your magic."

Melody thought back to the odd sense of calm that day her brother got his special whip and Enzo. That strange sense of being hyper aware of everything around her and knowing it would be okay.

How she wouldn't have hesitated to demonstrate exactly what little hand to hand she knew if any of those fools had harmed her brother.

That sense of single-minded focus and resolve filled her mind until it consumed her...then she willed it to come out and manifest.

It took her several moments to realize her brother was gaping at her in disbelief along with everyone else in the room.

"What?"

Dino was the first to recover amusingly enough. He ran one hand through his hair in disbelief.

"Who would have guessed we'd share more than just our magical ability and our mother's temper when provoked?"

Melody's flames were almost the same ones Dino had, just much, much stronger and flickering about. Then again this was the first time she consciously summoned them. And he didn't have a possible Cloud secondary, if he was reading the flickering third color right. It was the wrong shade for Mist.

Reborn was positively smug upon realizing Melody was a Sunny Sky like her brother. It meant he had all sorts of fun tricks to teach her about her Sun flames on top of learning how to heal someone.

Daniela was grinning.

"You know what this means don't you?"

"What?" asked Xanxus.

"It means I have an adorable apprentice that I'll be sponsoring to join her brother at the Academy," she said smugly.

Having Daniela sponsor Melody meant having unofficial Vongola protection. And no sane person wanted to piss off a woman who had fought on the front lines of World War Two on _top_ of having being the first female Vongola Don despite several people being very unhappy with it.


	6. Chapter 6

Melody tried not to fidget. Today was going to be her first day in the Mafia Academy. And, thanks to the fact the administration did _not_ want to deal with an unhappy Reborn or having Daniela making a visit to keep an eye on her new apprentice personally on their ass, Dino had been given the next two days free to insure his sister properly settled in.

She would still commute to school with her brother, but he was going to give her a full tour before she started classes.

One day was to get her used to where things were, the other was to make very, very sure that everyone knew that Dino would personally have their heads if they made her cry.

And that was _before_ word spread that the infamous Sun Arcobaleno let her get away with calling him "Uncle Reborn". Anyone that close to the chaotic sun was not to be touched or they'd end up having to deal with the man.

Melody made sure to stick close to her big brother and Reborn. By the end of the first day she had a general idea of where everything was, or at least how to find it. By the second most of the school knew that Reborn favored her like family...mostly because he was pointing out several interesting spots around the school while on her shoulder while Leon was on her head.

On the third day, however, she was _mostly_ on her own.

Save for the fact that the school allowed her to bring Artemis with her...for protection of course. That owl was downright vicious when she thought Melody was being threatened and seemed to think she was her chick.

Reborn suspected the snowy owl was actually Melody's familiar, much in the same way Leon was his. She was far too smart for even a postal owl and it would explain a lot.

"That's a pretty owl. What's her name?"

Melody turned to find... an albino boy with lavender eyes?

"Her name is Artemis, after the Greek goddess of the hunt. My brother would have named her Diana, except considering where he bought her he didn't want to invite bad luck."

"Why would using the Roman variant of the name invite bad luck?" he asked fascinated.

"Because we were in England at the time."

"Ah, you mean because he didn't want to invite any accidents like what happened to the Princess?" he asked.

"Pretty much."

"Where are my manners. Byakuran Gesso."

"Melody Evans."

"Aren't you the little sister of the Cavallone heir?" asked Byakuran. His eyes were strange and the staring was a bit weird, but she didn't sense anything bad from it.

Besides, from the wide berth everyone was giving him she suspected he was rather lonely.

"He's my half-brother. We don't like to talk about my genetic donor."

"Oh, one of _those_ cases," said Byakuran sagely. "Say no more. The fact your brother publicly claimed you before you went Active and Daniela Vongola has made it very clear you're her personal apprentice should keep most of the idiots from saying anything if they find out. If not, well there's a good chance that the un-bonded Elements will likely lynch anyone stupid enough to make you cry to make themselves look better."

"Why?"

"Skies are considered royalty for some weird reason. Most Families push any of their children who has that particular Flame type into gaining their Guardians as quickly as possible, preferably with allied families. I think most of them are trying to emulate the Vongola Primo, and it's ridiculous," shrugged Byakuran.

God knows how much flack _he_ got when it came out he had a Lightning secondary. He thanked the higher powers that he was a Sky/Mist primary, because he avoided the usual training for Lightnings. Training people to be mindless meat shields sounded horrible to him.

"Would you like to be friends?" she asked, tilting her head.

Byakuran blinked, before a wide smile came on his face.

"I'd love to. Everyone always get so weird about my quirks and the rest are just outright sycophants. It would be nice to have a friend I can have an actual conversation with."

"I know what you mean. That's part of the reason why my brother made very, very sure I never attended the school our mother went to like my genetic donor wanted."

Considering the amount of 'fame' that was being dumped on the head of a girl who had no prior contact or training in magical politics, Dino refused to let his sister go back to that country without a damn good escort or until she had reached her magical majority and had a full set of Guardians to keep the worst of it off.

Though that last bit was only after he learned she was a Sunny Sky like him.

"So who's your new friend?" asked Reborn at lunch.

"My name is Byakuran Gesso, heir of the Gesso family," he said politely.

"This is Prince Belphegor of magical Russia," said Melody, holding a surprisingly calm looking Belphegor in her lap.

Belphegor had been so put out when he learned he couldn't be in her class, but was mollified when Melody agreed to spend her lunch with him instead.

"Don't you mean the Varia?" asked Byakuran, eyeing the patch on his shirt.

"Ushishishi... The Boss practically adopted her after she started wearing feathers in her hair like he does. Which makes her family twice over."

Daniela thought it was positively adorable the way Melody was discreetly emulating Xanxus...the feathers anyway. Especially the way her grandson would blush and try to change the subject every time someone (Daniela or Reborn) brought it up.

Melody didn't give a damn about the Vongola or the fact Xanxus' mother was a prostitute. As far as she was concerned the older Sky was another big brother and that was that. The fact it netted her a few very overprotective big brothers and two very amused cousins (Mammon and Belphegor) didn't hurt either.

Though the look on Mammon's face when she called the Mist her 'cousin' was hilarious. Especially when she started hissing at Fantasma who was in their snake-like form at the time, only for the reptile to hiss _back_.

Byakuran was openly fascinated by magic, and within the week was Melody's new best friend. The fact they had a shared love of Japan (she loved mocking most of the magical girl shows, enough said) and were pretty much loners to a point made it interesting.

* * *

Melody stared at the older boy who kept trying to show off his muscles, as if that would tempt her into taking him on as one of her Guardians. He wasn't even _that_ impressive to look at.

Finally she couldn't take it anymore.

"If you're really serious about being my Guardian, then you have to survive an hour with my little brother," said Melody.

The idiot smirked at the challenge...right up until he found out who Melody considered her "little brother". Then he damn near pissed himself.

"Ushishishi... so this peasant thinks he can protect the Principessa?" said Belphegor, already drawing out his knives.

"Oh shi...!" yelped the fool, before he had to dodge a bored Varia Storm officer.

Most people would call Melody insane for pitting her prospective Guardians against a Varia Officer as a test.

People had a weird habit of forgetting how overprotective her family was, especially the men in her life. The lone females were relatively lax compared to them...in between making damn sure she could take out grown men twice her size and weight class and _laugh_ at the looks on the faces of civilians whenever she did so. Melody might be small, but she was flexible as hell and vicious when threatened.

Daniela, Lal Mirch and Viper had made very, very sure of that. Even if Viper's gender changed with their mood and whether they were inclined to screw with someone's head at the time or not.

So Melody thought it was perfectly acceptable to send the more stupid idiots Belphegor's way as a test. If they survived and still wanted to be her Guardian, then she'd honestly consider it. If not, well then they made their bed. It wasn't like she made it a _secret_ what her requirements were for her Guardians to the rest of the school.

If there weren't any previous signs of bonding, then they had to survive the Varia Storm before she let them near her. After all, they had to compare with the likes of _Reborn_.

Bel finished the idiot, leaving him barely alive and happily went right back to where Melody was. She patted him on the head, before letting him steal her lap.

Byakuran snorted. She had the prince so whipped it wasn't even funny. It was downright hilarious.

"I demand cuddles," said Bel with a straight face.

Obediently Melody wrapped her arms around him in a hug. She could still remember the first time they had an impromptu sleepover...Dino's face had been positively _hilarious_ as he had to fight the urge to yell at Belphegor for sneaking into her room and using her as a teddy bear.

The face he made when Byakuran did the _exact same thing_ had been so funny that Reborn wasn't the only one to take multiple pictures.

Byakuran had a sudden, evil idea.

"I sense chaos and I want in," said Melody, eyes sparkling.

"How would you like to give your brother something new to coo over?" grinned Byakuran. "And make it look like you're Belphegor's actual older sister."

"I'm listening."

 _Several hours later..._

Dino was having a mild panic attack. Byakuran had basically kidnapped Melody during lunch along with Belphegor and no one had seen them in some time.

So he was very surprised to feel someone tap him on the arm and turn to find...an adorable little _blond_ girl with familiar green eyes and stylishly messy hair.

"Melody?" he gaped.

"Chaos," she grinned at him.

"Ushishishi... I still say you look like a wood nymph," said Bel from the side.

With that adorable, yet simple white dress, that blond hair and green eyes she did in fact look like a wood nymph.

Though the resemblance between siblings was unmistakable now.

"What... _how_?"

"Byakuran kidnapped me for the day and took me to a hair stylist that bleached my hair to the same shade as yours," explained Melody happily. "I think I'll keep it this shade."

Dino, once he got over the shock of seeing his sister with the same hair color as his (and a few shades off from Belphegor's own), couldn't help his reaction.

"Too cute!" he announced, before hugging the stuffing out of his amused sister.

His sister was already adorable...this just made her even more so.

"Lussuria insisted I act as their dress up doll later... they're the ones who gave me the dress."

"If they can produce more outfits that make you look absolutely adorable, then I don't mind," said Dino hugging his sister.

(Lussuria was so pleased to have a willing dress up doll for their more interesting fashions that s/he started having regular tea at the mansion. Oddly enough Reborn usually joined in, as he was something of a fashion snob himself.)

* * *

"No, Melody you can't keep them," said Dino exasperated.

The Mist kid gave him a really bad vibe, and it didn't help that he had actual minions.

"Big brother..." whined Melody.

"No Melody. If you had harmonized with them, it would be a different story but it's considered rude to poach people from someone's famiglia," said Dino tiredly.

Melody didn't back down.

"Big brother, I don't think this is the right place for them. He has the same feeling I did when you first met me or like big brother Xanxus," said Melody. "And I really think he's going to pull a Ripper Prince if we don't get them out of here soon."

That made him pause.

Melody was a survivor to the core, even Xanxus had acknowledged that much when they first met. But for her to openly state that the Mist kid was about to pull a "Ripper Prince"... that was not something she would bandy about _lightly_.

Reborn frowned.

"Is this your heart or your head speaking, little princess?" he asked carefully.

It wasn't that well known, but all Skies had some form of sixth sense. However whenever someone brought it up, it was usually the Vongola that came to mind first.

Melody frowned.

"My heart is telling me that if we don't remove Mukuro and his friends from this place that something really, really bad is going to happen and it's going to be on the same level as Belphegor when Prince the Ripper makes an appearance."

That settled it, in Dino's mind. He trusted his sister's judgment.

"Just so we're clear, they are not play things. If you want to try and make them part of your Sky you can't go back on it later if you get bored," said Dino firmly.

"Okay, big brother," chirped Melody.

Mukuro found her a very curious female indeed. Oddly enough, the fool who took them in had absolutely no issue with handing over the Mist and his friends, though Lancia was a bit disappointed...he was still happy that Mukuro had caught the eye of a potential Sky.

Once they were settled in, more or less, in the Cavallone mansion Mukuro found himself confronted with wide green eyes armed with a massive plate full of baked goods.

"I helped to make these earlier. You can have some if you want," said Melody.

Ken didn't need a second invitation to that. He happily dove in, and Mukuro could see the feral boy almost immediately fall in love with the slightly younger girl for the free food.

"Kufufufufu... so what are we supposed to be, your new playthings?" asked Mukuro darkly.

"It's okay. You don't need to hide your real feelings anymore. I know you're just pretending to be nice because you don't have a choice in the matter," said Melody.

Mukuro paused.

"What are you talking about?"

"You're a survivor, same as me. I don't know what happened to you three, but I know that you have a very good reason to hate the mafia and that you just want to see it all burn for what it did to you," said Melody flatly. "The same way I'd happily see most of magical England razed to the ground for what happened to my mother."

Mukuro wasn't the only one staring at her. So were Chikusa and Ken.

"Kufufufu... what could a spoiled girl like you know about vengeance?"

"My mother was a particularly gifted young woman who caught the attention of a spoiled brat who wouldn't take no for an answer. When she was still in school she ended up pregnant with my brother and hid the fact she was already married before she graduated. There was a fight between two factions going on in England, disguised as terrorist attacks, and she was tricked into coming back. The man who obsessed over her managed to erase all her memories of Italy and tried to marry her, unaware she was still legally married to my brother's father. In short he raped her and tricked her into playing house wife, right up until the day she died," said Melody bluntly. "And if that wasn't bad enough, I was sent to live with my abusive, hateful aunt who was jealous of my mother for having a gift while she didn't, along with a fat prick of a husband and pig of a son who happily treated me like a live-in slave. My room, if you could call it that, was a broom cupboard under the stairs until my brother came to find out what happened to our mother and found me instead."

Mukuro was absolutely silent. He could tell that she was telling the truth, albeit an abbreviated version.

"So if anyone understands what hell is like without any real reason to hope, it would be me," said Melody bluntly.

"...What do you know of the Esterneo famiglia?" asked Mukuro quietly.

"That they were all idiots who thought it was acceptable to experiment on children and were abruptly wiped out about a year and a half ago. The only reason the Vindice didn't go after them was because they mostly kept the experiments in-house," said Melody immediately.

"And if I were to say we were the ones who killed them off? That they experimented on us?" asked Mukuro, eyes glinting coldly.

Melody's smile was neither friendly or warm...it was more in line with something Belphegor would have on his face when Prince the Ripper was about to make someone's day very bad indeed.

"Then I would have to ask if you made their deaths slow, painful and not at all pleasant. And that if you did, then they clearly got exactly what they deserved for being foolish enough to think that their actions wouldn't have such painful consequences," she replied cheerfully.

Most people had trouble comprehending why she got along with Belphegor, who was a psychotic little brat who loved to kill people.

Most people weren't treated as slaves by their own blood kin and told repeatedly that they were worthless, that their parents were worthless and they should be grateful for any scrap of kindness they got since they were a 'useless waste of space who should have been downed at birth' by the very people that were supposed to take care of them.

If anyone understood the desire to see their tormentors die a slow, painful and bloody death, it was Melody.

Mukuro met her green eyes without hesitation...and saw something of himself reflected in them.

"Kufufufu... I think we're going to get along just fine, little nymph," said Mukuro. The other two relaxed at the genuine mirth in his voice.

Melody's smile was all teeth.


	7. Chapter 7

Whatever Dino's reservations were about Mukuro, he reluctantly admitted his sister had been correct in that the kid was one move away from going on a complete massacre of the famiglia he was in with his minions right next to him.

How the hell did the Serpente famiglia _miss_ the fact that all three of them had PTSD, particularly Mukuro?!

He thanked his lucky stars they caught it in time, even if he wasn't entirely happy that Mukuro managed to harmonize with his sister as her Mist Guardian. Fortunately between Viper and the Varia, they were able to give the murderous little brat a 'healthy' outlet and the training he would need to be an effective Guardian.

The Varia didn't hire untested kids. However an outside contractor, while unusual, was still within acceptable limits. Mukuro could toe the line with his murderous urges, but at least this way he stayed firmly out of Vindicare while getting the treatment they clearly needed.

Dino knew his sister had PTSD from the Dursleys and to a lesser extent the death of their mother. However she had made great leaps in recovering from it simply because he removed her from that house and the country where she only had bad memories.

He couldn't count the number of times she had used him as a shield against her nightmares, both real and imagined. Or the number of times Reborn had let her use him as a teddy bear at night.

Melody had found the perfect outlet for her Mist to heal from his own trauma. Not just the training under Viper (which came complete with small missions for Mukuro to get his murderous urges out), but the fact that every time they found anyone stupid enough to help the Esterneo (either through funding or supplies, it didn't matter) Viper happily taught their apprentice how bankrupt the fools...for a hefty percentage of the money.

Mukuro didn't care about the money as it was just a means to an end for him. All he cared about was revenge, and being able to ruin those who either directly or indirectly participated in what they went through. The Vindice would only get involved if they went in and directly killed those responsible.

They could care less if a famiglia was ruined financially and drove themselves into extinction.

If anything Mukuro and his minions were thriving under Melody's Sky. She understood them in a way the Serpente famiglia simply didn't. Not that they really tried. All they saw was a trio of Flame active kids that needed a home and didn't bother to do a simple background check.

Of course nothing could have prepared Dino for when Melody managed to find her Storm.

Hayato Gokudera was a smart, if headstrong and brash idiot who had more or less cut ties with his famiglia upon learning the truth about his mother. That and the fact his father openly encouraged the boy's older sister (who was the same woman that kept trying to poison him because of a misguided crush on Reborn) to use him as a testing dummy for her poison cooking meant that Hayato had more than a little to prove to himself and to the underworld that he was more than the bastard son of a Japanese pianist.

Dino could understand wanting to prove yourself, and could somewhat relate to the trauma Hayato had of Bianchi.

What he _didn't_ get was how the hell Hayato and Melody could call each other best friends after a few meetings when the rows they had about details that made his head spin could be heard halfway across the house!

He looked between Melody and Hayato with an exasperated expression on his face. He had a headache and it wasn't even a school day.

"So what do you two have to say for yourselves?"

"She/he started it!" they said in unison, pointing at each other.

"I don't care who started it!" said Dino tiredly. "I just want an hour of peace and quiet to finish my paperwork!"

"Big brother, we live with Reborn as your home tutor. Peace and quiet is an illusion and just means that even bigger trouble is about to hit and hit hard," said Melody cheekily.

Reborn snorted at that.

"She has a point," he announced, smirking at her.

"I do not understand how exactly you managed to get _him_ as your Storm when you're always bickering over nothing," said Dino.

"We're not bickering. We're debating on creatures that may or may not exist and the possibility of alien life in the universe," said Melody in confusion. "Besides, Hayato is one of the only other people in the school besides me and Byakuran who reads the Quibbler."

Melody gave Hayato a dark look.

"And I still say that nargles are in no way related to wrackspurts."

"...I do not want to know. Just try to tone down the yelling, please?" begged Dino.

"I make no promises," said Melody with a sniff.

"Fine, then next time you get into a row with him try to limit the yelling and switch to hand to hand. You've been slacking of late and if he's going to be your Storm he might as well pick up on it now. And Hayato, _no bombs in the mansion_. At least not the explosive kind. Paint bombs are semi-acceptable and if you behave we'll show you how to work a paintball gun or something."

Paintball was an accepted practice in mafia families, as it was highly useful for teaching small children how to actually aim worth a damn and how to dodge without doing more than giving a bit of minor bruising. Nothing emphasized avoiding hits by potentially lethal projectiles than a big paint mess on your person.

"I already know how to shoot a paintball gun, but I never really got into it since the only one who wanted to play was aneki," said Hayato sourly. And he wasn't allowed to properly hit her, which meant he wasn't inclined to mess around with it.

Dino eyed the two of them before sighing.

"I know I'm going to regret this... Melody, introduce him to that old hound and the wolf. If nothing else they can get him started on proper trap placement."

Melody let out a whoop of laughter as she proceeded to drag a very confused Hayato to see the Marauders.

As much as she loathed James Potter, the fact remained that she _had_ inherited the pranking gene. However unlike James she never really used malicious pranks against people who annoyed her. She was far more likely to punch their lights out.

Let it never be said that Dino was one to miss a chance to have his sister learn how to throw a proper punch. Not only did she get lessons from Lussuria (who found the entire idea hilarious, mostly because of why Dino was so quick to jump on the idea), but Fon had come by for a month or two to teach Tai Chi and found a very enthusiastic and respectful student...once she got the urge to hug him out of the way, that is.

Was it _her_ fault that the Arcobaleno were all cute and hug-sized?

Hayato got along terrifyingly well with Remus, who had always been the brains of the Marauders. He openly said that he thought the whole werewolf thing was cool right to the man's face, which earned him Sirius' immediate approval.

Remus found their arguments over the Quibbler articles rather amusing, all told.

Though not as amusing as the expression on Dino's face when they got back from a trip to the local magical alleys...along with an extra.

* * *

 _In the Italian magical district..._

Hayato and Melody were cheerfully debating nargles over wrackspurts, when Melody caught sight of a dreamy eyed blond girl with radish earrings and a butterbeer necklace.

She made her way to the younger girl, mostly because she had to _know_.

"Is that a wrackspurt repellent necklace you're wearing?" asked Melody with hopeful eyes.

"Don't be silly. How many people actually have the sense to _make_ one, much less wear it in public?" said Hayato without thinking.

The blond girl openly beamed at them both.

"It is. You two have far less nargles than most around you...it's quite refreshing," said the girl with a slight English accent.

"Thanks! I convinced Mukuro to purge the mansion of nargles at least once a week, and Ken always has fun trying to find them!" said Melody. "I'm Melody Cavallone."

"Hayato Gokudera."

"I am Luna Lovegood."

The two gaped at her.

"Ohmygosh! Not the same Lovegoods who run the Quibbler!" said Melody with enthusiasm.

Luna's smile could have lit up a room.

"You have to help us settle a debate. I say that the Crumple Horned Snorkack is clearly from the southern hemisphere, but Hayato insists it's more likely to be found in the north!" said Melody with sparkly eyes.

Luna beamed at them both and happily began to join in on the 'argument' that had gotten them kicked out of the mansion for two hours by Dino. Hayato and Melody practically adopted the little blond witch as one of their own.

Remus took one look and tried very, very hard not to laugh.

"Hey Uncle Remus, do you think big brother would mind if Luna came for a sleep over?" asked Melody, eyes wide.

"I think he'd agree to it so long as her parents don't mind and to get some peace for a day or two," said Remus.

Luna perked up at that. She dragged them to one of the bookstores where her father was and it didn't take much to get an agreement for a proper sleepover. Ginny was too busy with her new friends at Hogwarts to remember Luna these days, which she found disappointing.

Dino took _one_ look at Luna and agreed to it...if only so Melody didn't break out the puppy dog eyes.

Melody squealed with happiness. She didn't really have many female friends, since more than a few of them were more interested in her brother and whether he was single or not.

"So Luna, what's Hogwarts like? I'm mostly home schooled like my brother, so I have no idea outside of the wild tales uncle Remus and Sirius give me."

"It's... well to be honest it looks nice on the outside but once you're a student it's very sad."

Melody frowned.

"Sad?"

"The castle is trying, but there's too much bad blood and no one is strong enough to set down the law in the school to bring the entire mess to heel. And the headmaster pretends to care, but he really doesn't. He allows the bullying situation to get entirely out of hand and only hands out token detentions," said Luna sadly. "And if someone _were_ to try and sort out the mess, then the Ministry would likely as not either brand them a dark witch or wizard, or worse idolize them to the point that the invisible chains would choke the life out of them. I think things would be much better if someone were to go in and set off that powder keg early just so we can start off fresh with a clean slate...preferably with

all the knowledge and history left intact."

"Makes me wonder what would happen if someone were to slip how to activate their Dying Will Flames, only to cause the majority of the English enclaves to become active," said Melody shaking her head.

More than ever she was very, very glad that her brother put his foot down and told the English to go hang themselves when they attempted to drag her into that nonsense.

There was nothing the British or Dumbledore could do to _force_ her into going to Hogwarts or being subject to their laws, and all her vaults save for the ancestral Potter one had been moved to Italy. And that lone vault was blood sealed, so even if the Ministry _did_ try to seize it, then they couldn't access it without a Potter because the contents would simply vanish...or in the event of her dying without any heirs would go straight to the goblins clans.

It had been that stipulation that had earned the positively friendly reception from the goblins. That and it would royally screw over the English fools who annoyed them so much, though it really didn't hurt that Dino had made Viper their financial adviser.

The Mist was many things, but a fool was not one of them. Upon being given access to a large store of gold and other precious metals that were being used as currency of all things, Viper had taken to increasing the amount using investments they had themselves.

Reborn had sniffed at the action, but hadn't commented. If Dino wanted to pay that miser the unholy fees that Viper insisted on with his inheritance from his mother, that was his business.

"Do you at least like the school?"

Luna shook her head.

"Most people call me Loony Lovegood and my only friend there has new ones and forgot about me," she said sadly.

Melody swept her up in a hug.

"What are the classes like at least?"

Because in all honesty it was starting to sound like she dodged a major bullet when her brother took full custody of her. Luna's description of the classes made that very clear.

Which was why Melody refused to let her new friend suffer another year of substandard teaching on top of the bullying.

Dino had groaned when he realized his sister had managed to somehow find a Rainy Mist, one that had apparently gone Active very young and was in danger of going into Discord.

Xenophilius had absolutely no problem allowing his daughter to stay in Italy or remove her from the ancient castle. He could see she was much happier here with her potential Sky than she was in England. Especially when Luna became Melody's Rain guardian, since Mukuro was firmly her Mist.

Byakuran found the little Rain openly _fascinating_ , and Melody laughed herself to hiccups when Luna was kidnapped by both her friend and Lussuria and came back dressed in the most _outlandish_ outfits. Luna seemed positively cheerful about the clashing colors and bizarre designs, but it was clear to anyone with eyes she was just happy to have friends who genuinely understood her.


	8. Chapter 8

Melody was sad that Reborn was gone...until Dino learned that the man was training another heir. Besides, he e-mailed her regularly so it wasn't like he forgot about her.

So it was a pleasant surprise when she opened up an e-mail and found an address to where he was currently staying. Good thing she knew how to speak and read Japanese.

Then a thought occurred to her and she sent a reply back.

 _Uncle Reborn, is it okay if we bring Auntie Daniela with us? I'm sure she would have some advice for your student since she_ did _lead the Vongola before the current Don._

It took Reborn several moments to reply back, but when he did she beamed.

 _By all means, little princess. Feel free to bring her as well. If anything she might be able to get Dame Tsuna started on his training using Sky Flames._

"Big brother, I got a message from Uncle Reborn!" said Melody cheerfully.

It took a few days to arrange everything (namely because Byakuran was bored and wanted in on the trip as well), but in the end Dino, a handful of his men (magical or otherwise), Melody (along with her Guardians), Daniela and a cheerful Byakuran were all headed to Japan to meet the Vongola heir.

It was probably a good thing Belphegor was currently out on a mission. He might have given the poor kid nightmares.

At this point Dino was heavily praying that Belphegor didn't take a fancy to his little sister, because he did not want the mental images of what their potential kids would look like. Thankfully the bloodthirsty prince seemed to prefer Melody as an older sister at the moment, rather than a potential match.

* * *

 _Several hours later..._

Melody took one look at Tsunayoshi ("Call me Tsuna.") and had to fight back a squeal. He was like a skittish, fluffy lion cub.

Daniela, on the other hand, frowned.

 _"Reborn, are you absolutely certain he's a Sky? I can barely feel anything from him,"_ she said in Italian.

Reborn merely slid the file over to the former Vongola Donna. She took _one_ look at it and her face twitched. She was clearly angry about something.

" _It seems I am going to be having_ words _with my son when I return to Italy. It's bad enough he nearly froze Xanxus, if not for the charm that those hounds made to keep him safe!"_ said Daniela.

During a monumental misunderstanding, Timoteo almost put Xanxus into a very long, painful time out inside a giant ice cube. However the emergency portkey activated the _second_ the ice covered his body, sending him straight to the Marauder's little cabin to the shock of Sirius and Remus. They promptly called Daniela in, who took _one_ look at the ice and became very, very pissed off.

She promptly freed him...and then gave her son a very thorough tongue lashing before giving him the riot act when he even tried to suggest putting Xanxus back into the ice to 'cool his head'.

Apparently Timoteo was good at recreating the techniques of the Primo, but never bothered to do his research regarding the side effects.

As a result the Varia was still on very thin ice with the main house, but at least Xanxus wasn't stuck as an ice cube.

Tsuna was very skittish, and Melody couldn't help but sympathize.

The poor kid was way in over his head and Reborn was rather impatient considering what happened to the last three heirs. Enrico was dead, Massimo murdered and Federico was still in training to take over CEDEF because it gave him more freedom to mess around without having to deal with the whole "Vongola Heir" thing. That and he wasn't an idiot...he knew perfectly well he wasn't strong enough to lead the famiglia and after what happened to his older brothers he wasn't about to invite disaster and end up the same way as them.

"Nii-san, would it be okay if I transferred into the same school as Tsuna?" asked Melody over dinner.

Tsuna looked startled at the question.

"Why?"

"Because you barely survived Uncle Reborn's antics and you had an actual support base. From what I've seen Tsuna's social status is a little too similar to what I had to deal with before you found me," said Melody.

Reborn frowned, before silently conceding she had a very good point. Now that he thought about it, Tsuna and Melody's situations were a little _too_ similar...save for the fact he wasn't being openly abused by his mother, just neglected and ignored.

"I think it would be a good idea," said Daniela. "If anything she might be able to help teach him how to behave in our society without overwhelming him."

The fact it raised the chances of a potential match between Melody and Tsuna was another matter. Daniela was a firm believer of keeping her options open, and outside of Byakuran there were hardly any decent boys within Melody's age range that wouldn't set off Dino and Reborn's overprotective tendencies.

One thing was for certain... Daniela was _not_ going to let that seal stay on a day longer if she could help it.

* * *

Tsuna collapsed backward, only caught by Dino's quick reaction. Clumsy he might be, but he wasn't going to let the poor kid get a concussion if he could prevent it.

"He'll probably sleep for most of the day, depending on when that seal was applied. Once he gets used to having his Flames free, we can see how much damage we need to deal with," said Daniela firmly.

Reborn tilted his hat in acknowledgment.

"That being said I am going to have words with my son over this. Skies need to be trained, not _sealed!"_

"...Can I listen in? From what I was told the seal was originally Iemitsu's idea and there are a few complaints I would like to register regarding the protections, or lack thereof. At the very least he should have noticed his wife is almost incapable of raising his son," said Reborn darkly.

"By all means. I trust I can leave my poor great-grandson's care in your capable hands?" said Daniela.

Melody gave her a salute.

"No one's getting past me or the others and we already set up a magical tent in the backyard. I bet Tsuna could use a proper break from Reborn's antics and a sympathetic ear to vent to," said Melody with a chirp.

Meaning he was going to wake up in the tent and not his room, since it was easily secured.

Daniela nodded with approval.

 _Tsuna POV_

He woke up in a very weird place that was most definitely _not_ his room, feeling more clear-headed and awake than he could remember.

"Afternoon, sleepyhead. Auntie said to let you rest since her son clearly needed another tongue-lashing for being Stupid again. Reborn called you in sick, so the 'demon' wouldn't have reason to come after you, whatever that means. And there's lunch if you're hungry," chirped Melody.

Tsuna was ravenous, but ate the food in a neat, if hurried pace. At least he didn't have to deal with Reborn or Lambo trying to steal his food again.

"How are you feeling?" asked Melody with some sympathy.

"It always felt like my skin was too tight on my body, and whatever made it shrink is finally starting to breath again," said Tsuna.

"Want to talk? If anyone understands what it's like to have a bad reputation that was made through no fault of your own used against you, it's me," said Melody.

Tsuna stared. Something in the back of his head told him she wasn't lying about that.

"My parents died protecting me, and I was sent to live with my maternal aunt who hated my mother because she was born with a special gift. So when I was dropped on their doorstep she took out her petty jealousy out on me, and her husband and son went along with it. They weren't very nice, and by the time I entered school everyone 'knew' I was a troublemaker and a 'useless girl with disreputable parents', so I was blamed for my cousin's bad behavior. Everyone believed the adults and never bothered to look deeper and my cousin would always chase away any friends I might have made."

Tsuna couldn't help but feel a deep sense of empathy hearing that.

"Mama decided to keep me close instead of sending me to pre-school with the other kids, so I was already behind a little on schoolwork. It wasn't bad, but then all of a sudden I started having major problems comprehending the course work after a visit from my dad and within a few months everyone was calling me 'Dame-Tsuna'. By the time I got to middle school everyone knew me as 'No Good, Useless Tsuna' and no one wanted to be friends with me at all," said Tsuna, crying.

Melody made sure he saw what she was doing when she pulled him into a tight hug. Tsuna latched onto her without hesitation... it felt like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders, having someone there who _understood_ exactly what he was going through.

In a sick, twisted way Reborn's presence was the best thing to happen to him, because he was finally making friends who actually cared.

Reborn watched the entire thing and left them to it. If anyone could get through to Tsuna it was Melody and he wasn't above encouraging a potential romance between them. At the very least she would easily secure a trusted sister position.

Though he did send Lambo in, as the boy got antsy without his "Tsuna-nii".

"Too cute!" squealed Melody, scooping up the tiny Lightning.

Lambo squirmed, before settling into the hold after a moment.

"He likes grape," Tsuna helpfully informed her.

Melody's eyes gleamed as she walked to the freezer and got a grape Popsicle. Lambo happily settled into her arms with that in hand, once she opened it for him.

"Want one?" she asked.

"Do you have any green ones?" asked Tsuna hopefully. Melody pulled out an green and a red one, and handed him the first.

"Feel free to raid the fridge if you like. Auntie is planning to find out how much damage the seal did before she starts you on Flame training, and uncle Reborn said he'd give you the day off if you had a training session with her."

"Why do you call him uncle Reborn?" asked Tsuna curious.

Melody's eyes were tired.

"Remember how I said that I lived with my aunt until my brother found me? Uncle Reborn was the one to find my 'room' and brought me to the attention of Dino-nii. He helped me get through my nightmares and let me cuddle with him so I could sleep. I used to sneak into Dino-nii's bed all the time during the first two years after he found me," said Melody quietly. Then her eyes sparkled. "Did you know he's quite the cuddle bug?"

"Really?" perked up Tsuna.

"Once he gets settled in and trusts you not to stab him in his sleep, he really clingy when he's sharing a bed. It's really cute and his hair is really soft. And those side burns of his are natural, if you can believe it."

"Are there any blue ones in there for me?" asked a voice. It was Daniela.

"Freezer," said Melody cheerfully.

"Dibs on the orange," said Byakuran grinning. Behind him was a red head who had a total 'blue screen of death' going on.

"What did you do?" asked Melody to Byakuran.

"He's a Sun Latent, almost Active. I figure if he strikes out with me he might enjoy being your Sun, even if he can't really compare to Reborn. I may have neglected to tell him about the tent though," said Byakuran grinning.

The poor Sun looked like he had a stomach ache. Melody handed Lambo over to Tsuna, before getting a potion vial.

"Drink this. It tastes somewhat foul but it'll keep your stomach from bothering you for at least an hour or so," she informed him, handing the vial over.

The kid didn't think twice, and nearly gagged at the taste. It was worth it, considering his stomach quit hurting him though.

"Is this thing a T.A.R.D.I.S.?" he asked seriously.

"A _Doctor Who_ fan! And no, but limited time travel is possible if you know the right people to ask," said Melody, clapping her hands with delight. "However the bigger on the inside is a pretty common thing."

Between time turners and the Bovino's Ten Year Bazooka, time was a play thing.

"What's a TARDIS?" asked Tsuna.

"Time And Relative Dimensions In Space, or TARDIS for short. I'm pretty sure we could get something to let you watch the episodes in Japanese if your English isn't up to snuff," offered Melody.

"I've only managed to get my hands on the remake when the brought in the Ninth, and I'm still trying to see the new ones with Matt Smith," admitted the Sun.

"I have the DVDs around here somewhere. And a marathon sounds like it would be a blast. Cavallone Melody," she said with a polite bow, when she remembered Byakuran hadn't bothered to introduce his friend.

"Irie Shōichi," he said, bowing back.

Daniela's ire with her son only rose as she realized the sheer amount of issues Tsuna had with his self-esteem and memory. He would need a lot of work before he was able to properly handle his school work since the seal did a number on his ability to comprehend the subject material, and it didn't help that the teachers had been automatically against him from the start because of his reputation.

And while Nana was an acceptable caretaker, she clearly left much to be desired as a mother. She would dismiss things like obvious bullying as her son being 'clumsy' and didn't bother to take his teachers to task for not doing their job properly. It was clear that Nana cared more about Iemitsu than her own son, which was rather pathetic when the man was more interested in his famiglia than his wife.

It was becoming increasingly obvious that _someone_ would need to step in and insure the boy would be able to handle the darker side of society. Otherwise he would be a sitting duck once he became Decimo.


	9. Chapter 9

Tsuna was rather anticipating coming to school today. He perked up at the word 'transfer students', since he knew that Reborn had arranged for Melody to be in his class along with at least one other.

Melody was _sick_ of the Mafia Academy, more specifically she was tired of the boys trying to get into her pants or impress her in order to 'earn' a chance to be one of her Guardians. According to Melody (and confirmed by Daniela), it wasn't that uncommon for female Skies to pair up with male Guardians.

And since she was close to the Vongola Donna and from a well to do mafia famiglia, that made her a prime target. It didn't help that she was a powerful Sky as well, which only made her more appealing to the piranhas that made up the mafia.

The teacher introduced Melody and her Storm Hayato (who had Takeshi perking up) and the two took their seats. Melody was right next to him, while Hayato took the seat behind him.

However it was what the teacher said next that had Melody openly sighing in exasperation.

Really? Her brother just _had_ to be such an overprotective mother hen that he somehow managed to get into the school as the new English teacher?

Melody could get out of that particular class, as she had spent several years in England and somehow managed to retain the accent.

Unfortunately that particular chance was taken out of her hands the second Dino made her his "official assistant", aka his own personal gopher. Since she didn't need to learn how to read and speak English, she was stuck helping him in class.

She mostly found the problem students who had great difficulty with understanding the language. Tsuna chief among them.

 _After school hours..._

Tsuna looked at the comic in Melody's hands with confusion.

"What's this?"

"The supplementary homework assignment you're getting for English," she said flatly.

"You're giving me a graphic novel...as homework."

"Not a manga... most of those are generally released in Japan first and the translation can be very wonky if you tried to rely on them. However there are plenty of American comics you can translate on your own time to help inspire you to learn English a bit faster. These are also short enough that it shouldn't take nearly as long to translate," said Melody with a straight face.

Considering the students with the most trouble in the class were all boys, she felt it was a suitable way into tricking them all into actually learning something. They certainly had no arguments, and Melody would know immediately if they had tried to cheat because she had convinced Shōichi to mess with the popular search engines for the next month so that the results would go to mistranslated copies. If they though they were going to get easy extra credit by looking up the Japanese translation, they were in for a nasty surprise.

Tsuna looked at the book with curiosity and open interest. It was a good start, considering how far behind he was in the class.

"What series is this?"

" _Doctor Who_. I figured if they're going to be translating a comic book and having to read it out loud in front of Dino-nii, then it might as well be something they will actually enjoy reading. And you liked watching the series with us, so I thought it would be an easy choice."

Reborn was rather skeptical of the trick, but when he caught Tsuna slowly reading out loud the words in the comic, he had to admit it was a sneakily effective ploy.

Giving them comics had Tsuna actually _interested_ in learning properly, since Reborn would patiently correct him whenever he used the wrong word. By the end of the week he wasn't consulting the little dictionary he had nearly as much, and when called upon by Dino to read a short passage out loud he got the majority of it right.

Whereas several of the other boys tapped for the 'extra credit' assignment ended up having to do a much harder one because they didn't bother to do the translation themselves.

Melody was slowly coaxing Tsuna into using his Flames properly. Forcing them out with the special bullets was fine and all, but for someone as skittish as Tsuna it was only going to make him more reluctant to actually USE his Flames in the first place. It was bad enough Melody had to explain in detail what the property of Sky Flames were and how to tell if a proper bond had taken place.

Takeshi had to have a similar explanation, but once they figured out what was wrong the two of them had started making headway to a proper bond instead of the half-cocked one they had when Melody arrived.

Though the thing Melody found the most strange was the fact that Tsuna seemed openly _relieved_ when Hibari started drifting more to her Sky rather than his. He found the Prefect to be quite terrifying and the thought of trying to control him gave the poor kid nightmares.

Melody didn't mind Hibari's violent nature. Far from it...there was more than a few people she would happily direct the violent Cloud to and enjoy the fireworks.

Reborn was rather disappointed, mostly because he had hoped to fill Tsuna's Sky early and not have to deal with it. So far the only ones Tsuna had were Takeshi, Lambo and possibly Ryohei or Shōichi. It was hard to tell which Sun was being drawn to him, as it was still too early.

"Honestly Uncle Reborn, I don't know _why_ you just assumed that he would find suitable Guardians so easily when he still had that seal on him. And anyone with eyes could tell that Kyouya-kun is a horrible fit as his Cloud. He wouldn't respect Tsuna at all," said Melody.

"I know, but I just wanted this job over and done with. I'm old, little princess, and I know my time is almost over. I guess the fact that I'm almost ready to go made me sloppy," admitted Reborn. And if it wasn't Melody, he wouldn't admit to that much.

He had always been closer to the girl than he had Dino. It was strange.

Reborn actually quite enjoyed it when Melody carried him around like a doll, not that he would say it out loud. There was something in her Sky that made it very easy to simply lean back and relax... while watching the chaos happen, of course.

Which was why he said nothing when she picked him up to cuddle with him, and once again simply basked in the feel of her Flames.

Except something happened even _he_ didn't expect... for once his Flames didn't passively hover. Instead he could _actively_ feel them mingling with her Sky, until they merged...and a guardian bond formed.

"Welcome home, Uncle Reborn," said Melody, hugging him.

Reborn was silent, still in open shock that he had found his Sky after so long.

"...Dibs on telling your brother and Daniela. I want to record their expressions," said Reborn after he snapped out of it.

Melody giggled wickedly, making him grin.

Dino, predictably when he heard the news, _fainted_. Daniela stared before she started to cackle quite evilly.

Reborn was just happy to have a Sky he knew he could trust...and who was quickly developing into a troll almost on the same level as him.

On an unrelated note, he now had even more reason to nudge Melody towards Tsuna.

Dino, Reborn _and_ Daniela had noticed Tsuna's "crush" on Kyoko swiftly being replaced with a much stronger one towards Melody, though there was the small fact that Byakuran had made no bones of the way he felt about his only friend. The albino Sky was more than a little territorial.

Dino had zero issues with Melody dating Tsuna. The kid was shy, but had a good heart that generally got lost by this age in the mafia. There was also the unspoken fact that Kyoko was far too much like Nana, even if she _was_ the younger sister of Ryohei.

Tsuna had enough issues...he didn't need a borderline Oedipus Complex on top of them.

* * *

There was an unofficial betting pool over who would end up with Melody as their girlfriend.

The one in the lead was Byakuran, followed closely by Mukuro, Tsuna and surprisingly enough, Hibari after Melody laid him flat on his ass using a few moves Fon had taught her.

Daniela, when the subject had first come up, had cackled rather delightedly. An unspoken fact about strong _female_ Skies was that they had a habit of attracting multiple lovers. The fact Melody was able to draw in _two_ Skies of equal strength as well as a powerful Cloud and Mist was a very good sign about how strong her Flames were, never mind the purity.

Dino was torn, but at least had the small measure of comfort knowing that any boy who broke his sister's heart would have to contend with a lot of angry parties all too happy to hide their broken bodies somewhere in a ditch where no one would ever find them, including a large number of pissed off Assassins, at least _three_ Arcobaleno and a very vindictive female Sky.

He was still in shock his sister was strong enough to harmonize with _Reborn_ of all people.

Said Sun could now be often seen sitting calmly in Melody's arms regularly after school hours. He was rather content to be carried around, or was could otherwise be found sitting on her shoulder like some sort of odd parrot.

Melody certainly had no complaints about the fact Reborn loved to cuddle against her.

Though the expression on Fon's face was rather amusing when he realized what Reborn was doing.

"So how exactly do you know if you have a Guardian bond with someone?" asked Tsuna, after Melody explained why Reborn was acting a bit odd for the past week and a half.

"Remember how I showed you the correct way to manifest your Flames without the bullets?"

Tsuna nodded.

"I want you to bring out your Flames for a moment," said Melody gently.

Reborn and Fon were in the room, quietly conversing in Mandarin about who would take in I-Pin, Fon's apprentice and adopted daughter.

Reborn was able to shrug off the feeling of Tsuna's Flames... Melody's own wrapped around his Sun like a warm hug that just welcomed him home with open arms. That, and Tsuna's Sky had fallen into an easy Resonance with Melody.

However when Tsuna's Sky came into contact with Fon, the most surprising thing happened.

One moment Fon's Storm was about to brush it away, mostly out of old habits from other Skies trying to forcibly bond with him.

Except instead of Tsuna being quietly rebuffed, Fon's Storm _latched_ onto his Flames. Fon sat up straight in shock, his eyes widening in disbelief. He turned to look at a very confused Tsuna, who was listening to Melody quietly instruct him in how to detect Guardian bonds.

Needless to say it didn't take much for everyone to realize what happened.

Reborn had an understanding expression on his face when he looked at Fon, once he realized which Sky the Storm had bonded to.

"Luce's attempts are nothing compared to the real thing, wouldn't you agree?" said Reborn.

Fon nodded in numb shock.

"...It's probably a good thing he bonded to Tsuna instead of me, considering Kyouya has shown a stronger interest in joining my Sky instead. Can you imagine the repair bills he would cause if he had to share the same Sky as Fon?" said Melody.

Tsuna whimpered at the mere thought of it.

"And don't get me started on Mukuro and Kyouya. Those two go at it like cats and dogs, and it doesn't help that Mukuro is so very good at pushing Kyouya's buttons to the point he gets even more violent."

"I'm surprised you allow them to fight," said Fon joking.

"So long as I'm not legally required to care about the damages and they hide the bodies of anyone stupid enough to interrupt their playing, it's _not_ my problem," said Melody.

Fon smiled at that, before turning to Reborn.

"You've definitely found your perfect Sky, old friend."

"Whereas Tsuna has been showing an aptitude for hand to hand combat when Melody tried to find what his best weapon is. You might have a hidden prodigy on your hands if you're lucky," said Reborn.

Tsuna looked at Reborn owlishly. (He picked it up from Artemis, who regarded him as another owlet she had to mother.)

That was _literally_ the NICEST thing his demon of a tutor had ever said about him, even if it was implied that he suspected it might be true. It was always 'Dame-Tsuna' this and 'Dame-Tsuna' that.

At least Melody's presence had caused Reborn to only use that awful nickname when Tsuna was being particularly stubborn. Something about how another word in her presence would cause Melody to cringe violently and have nightmares.

Tsuna liked her too much to ask what that word was, and why it affected her so badly. Mostly because he suspected that it would cause him to use Vongola resources to go after the ones responsible, if Dino-nii and Reborn hadn't dealt with them already.

Reborn was currently betting with Daniela, Dino and Xanxus over when Tsuna would figure out he liked Melody as more than just a friend, and when his hormones would finally get a kick in the pants long enough to make the rather amusing mess that was Melody's potential love life become even more interesting for the older generation.

Melody suddenly looked at Fon, then at Tsuna before a smirk appeared on her face.

For some reason all the Arcobaleno were cuddle sized and she could usually get away with hugging them.

And since Reborn had a habit of turning into an adorable bear for her to hug at night, she wondered if Fon was the same.

Reborn, sensing potential chaos, shared a look with Melody.

"What are you planning, little filly?" asked Reborn quietly, while Fon introduced himself properly to his new Sky.

At least the question of what to do with I-Pin was now moot. After all, if Fon had a Sky then it was only natural that she would have to stay _with_ said Sky if she wanted to continue her apprenticeship. And having a Guardian bond was one of the few ways to get out of the Triads and keep his adopted daughter safe from their attempts to corrupt her.

"Just wondering how Fon would react if Tsuna decided to cuddle with him while half asleep like you do with me," said Melody innocently. "I know new Guardians are very clingy the first month or two, so it's only natural Fon would have to share the same room as Tsuna. Why not make it a joint sleepover and see if Tsuna's Flames pick any other new guardians?"

Reborn smirked at the implication of that. If Tsuna _did_ turn Fon into an impromptu teddy bear to cuddle with, he was so getting blackmail for later.

(Coincidentally he about laughed himself sick when Fon was tricked into black cat ears through a combination of Melody's puppy dog eyes and his instinctive need to make his Sky happy. Tsuna certainly found Fon's new look very adorable, as he happily hugged the Storm the way Melody did with Reborn...with I-Pin right next to Fon.)


End file.
